Dusk Of Mankind
by Dragnok
Summary: On the retrieval mission, Naruto and his group were sent on, Naruto dies a few days after, in the hospital due to a Chidori to the chest. It's caused by Sasuke Uchiha. Naruto suddenly wakes up in a hospital where everything is either dead, or a Dead person walking. Can he survive in this new world? *ReWrite Up*
1. Chapter 1

**Summary: On the retrieval mission Naruto and his group were sent on, Naruto dies a few days after, in the hospital due to a Chidori to the chest. It's caused by Sasuke Uchiha. Naruto suddenly wakes up in a hospital where everything is either dead, or a Dead person walking. Can he survive in this new world?**

 **X-X I Don't Own Naruto/The Walking Dead X-X**

Naruto looked up at the ceiling of the hospital he was laying in. Today was his last day and all of his friends were in the room with him.

"I guess this is goodbye then" Naruto muttered so quietly that they barely heard him. Everyone had tears in their eyes. "Please… don't cry for me… Live happy lives when I pass and make the most of it… don't turn into Kaka-sensei, staring at the memorial stone" Naruto said, an attempt at a joke to lighten the mood.

Everyone smiled slightly at his joke, but the tears were still in their eyes.

"I'm going to kill him for what he did… I swear it" Kiba said, rage in his eyes making Naruto smile at how good his friends were.

"Everyone… it's time to say goodbye to Naruto…" Tsunade said, tears running down her face. "But before we do… Naruto, It's time you learned of your parents so you can meet them in the afterlife" Everyone's eyes widened. No one knew who Naruto's parents were so they were excited to hear.

"Your mother was Kushina 'Red-Death' Uzumaki. She was an S-Ranked Shinobi who loved you with all her heart. When she found out she was pregnant… I'd never seen her happier" Tsunade Started. Everyone's eyes widened in shock to hear that Naruto's mother was an S-Class Shinobi.

"Now onto your Father… Your Father was Minato Namikaze, The Yondaime Hokage and Konoha's Yellow Flash" Everyone's Jaws were on the floor except for Naruto and Jiraiya. Naruto because he had tears running down his face and Jiraiya because he already knew.

"M-My parents loved me…" Naruto said with a smile. Everyone finally broke out of their shocked states when Naruto started to cough violently and blood began to stain the bandages around his chest.

"Shit, his wounds reopening! Everyone out for a few minutes while I stabilize him!" Tsunade yelled making everyone rush out of the room hesitantly.

Not long after they left they were called back in to say their goodbyes.

"Everyone, Naruto has an Hour left at most… so be quick with your goodbyes" Tsunade said and one by one, everyone walked up to the bed and said their goodbyes and how they were going to miss him. When everyone's goodbyes were over, they watched Naruto slowly close his eyes.

"Thank you… for being… my… friends" Naruto's eyes closed and the heart monitor went flat and a long beep ensued. Everyone burst into tears as they looked at the now deceased Naruto.

 **X-With Sasuke-X**

Sasuke dropped to the ground on the way to Orochimaru, holding his eyes in pain so he quickly ran to a river and looked at his reflection and was shocked when he saw his three-tomoe Sharingan morph into a Mangekyou Sharingan.

"No… Naruto…" Sasuke muttered, before standing back up and continuing his trek to Orochimaru, but this time he had tears streaming down his face.

 **X-In The Afterlife-X**

Naruto was looking around at the golden clouded landscape when he suddenly heard two people gasp behind him. Naruto turned and looked at the two people and instantly recognized his Father since they looked so much alike so he assumed the other person was his mother.

"Naruto…?" The redhead muttered, tears forming in her and his father's eyes.

"It's me… Mom… Dad…" Naruto said, a smile forming on his lips and two of the most powerful shinobi in the Elemental Nations Ran at him and hugged him, tears running down their eyes. The Namikaze Family had been reunited for the first time in a long time. Suddenly, after a few minutes of hugging they heard a person clear their throat behind them and when they looked up they saw the Shinigami in all its glory, staring at Naruto.

"Naruto Uzumaki…" The Shinigami said. "I have a proposition for you"

 **X-X-X**

"So you want me to go into a different universe try and become its savior like I was supposed to do as the Child of Prophecy in the Elemental Nations?" Naruto asked the Shinigami to which he simply nodded.

"Mom… Dad… What do you think?" Naruto asked, turning around to look at his parents and they smiled at him.

"I think you should take it! I mean, How often do you get to save a world from annihilation!" Kushina said excitedly. "And… you died so early in your old life so you deserve another one!" She continued, Minato nodding behind her.

"Well… If you're sure… Then I accept Shinigami-Sama!" Naruto said, making the Shinigami smile.

"Good… Now there's one thing you should know about universe hopping, your memories will be removed but over time you will unlock them in a sense. When you need them most is when they will come to you" The Shinigami said before waving his hand, and a slash in the air appeared. "Oh, and I'll also give you knowledge of how this new world works but not what you need to defeat to bring peace"

"This is your entrance… good luck, young Uzumaki" Naruto walked to the portal and when he stood in front of the portal he turned back and looked back at his parents.

"I guess it'll be a while before we meet again so… wish me luck!" Naruto said and turned around to face the portal.

"Wait, Naruto, take this with you," Minato said as he tossed Naruto a scroll. "It has every Jutsu I've ever learned in it, keep it" Naruto smiled and gave a thumbs up before Jumping in.

 **X- When Naruto wakes up -X**

Naruto groaned as he woke up in a Hospital bed, IV still in his arm, but bag empty. The first thing he noticed was that there wasn't a single noise being made, not a sound heard by him. It was then he realized.

' _Why the hell can't I remember anything?!'_ Naruto thought, freaking out for a few minutes, before calming down and thinking things through. ' _Alright… what do I remember? I remember my name… Naruto Uzumaki... Sounds Japanese'_ Naruto walked into the restroom and noticed how he looked.

' _I don't look Japanese though'_ Naruto thought before he saw bandages around his chest and head, covered in dried blood. ' _Why didn't the hospital staff change my bandages? Why can't I hear anyone… I should at least hear a heart monitor or something!'_ Naruto turned and walked out of his room before stopping in his tracks.

Everything was run down to shit. Lights were hanging off the roof and flickering, bodies everywhere… blood on the walls… "What the fuck happened here?!" Naruto whispered to himself before walking down the hallways as quiet as possible.

' _Why the hell am I trying to be so quiet? It's not like there's going to be zombies or anything. Heh'_ Naruto thought, not realizing how right he was. When he walked to the end of the hallway he saw the entrance to the Cafeteria boarded up and chained, the board looking worn down from being pushed on for so long.

"Don't Dead, Open inside huh?" Naruto said, the joke cheering himself up a bit at his own attempt at humor. Suddenly the doors slammed against the board and chains, scaring the shit out of Naruto, so acting on instinct, he ran away, to the nearest staircase and ran down it as fast as possible and when he got to the last five steps, he jumped off and landed on the ground, obviously forgetting he hasn't moved from that hospital bed in however long so he wasn't used to moving yet.

"Damn… that hurt…" Naruto muttered before standing back up and walking outside. The light practically blinded him, he had been in that dark hospital for so long and hasn't seen the sun in ages.

"It's so bright!" Naruto spoke to himself as his eyes adjusted to the light he hadn't seen in so long. When he exited the building and got his eyesight back, he noticed rows upon rows of bodies, covered in a white sheet to hide them.

Naruto began to climb the hill and saw a bunch of Military equipment like Helicopters, Tents, Vehicles, and even Barricades.

"What the hell is so bad that the Military was called in?!" Naruto asked no one in particular, more to himself than anything but he was still curious. Naruto walked past it all, before stumbling upon a road, leading to a bunch of houses.

"Houses! Maybe I'll find someone in there that isn't dead considering every person I've run into has been in a body bag" Naruto said as he walked past an all-white house when he saw a man collapse to the ground in tears. Naruto quickly ran into the house and saw the man laying on the floor, crying.

"Hey dude, you okay? I saw you collapse on the ground from outside!" Naruto said, happy he found another survivor.

"Is this real… Am I here..?" The man spoke before he started to hit himself in the head with the palm of his hand.

"Hey, hey! Dude stop!" Naruto told him, grabbing his arm to stop him, but he stopped on his own.

"W-Who are you..?" The man asked, looking up at the boy who had run into his house to help him. Naruto stood up.

"Names Naruto Uzumaki! Nice to meetcha!" Finally, the man got a good look at the boy.

"Your Him! That boy we found outside the station covered in blood! We rushed you to the hospital as soon as we found you… the same hospital I woke up in…" The man said "Oh and I'm Rick... Rick Grimes" Rick said.

"Well that explains why I was in the hospital," Naruto said, confusing Rick.

"What do you mean? Do you not remember?" Rick asked, confused at how Naruto could not know about how he ended up in the hospital.

"I'm an Amnesiac… I Don't remember anything except my name… Naruto… that's all I've got left of me" Naruto said, looking at his feet. Rick got up and set his hand on Naruto's shoulder.

"Hey, why don't you travel with me… at least until we find my family and if you want to stay, you're more than welcome" Rick said, making Naruto smile.

"Sure… Thanks, Rick" Naruto said as they walked out of the house. They walked about a mile before their injuries got to them and they had to sit down and after a few minutes, they saw someone walking towards them but they couldn't see clearly because of the heat and their injuries.

Suddenly they heard a stick break behind them and when they turned around they caught a Shovel to the face, bloodying their noses and sending them to the ground.

"Carl… I found you…" Naruto heard Rick say before they turned to look at the man and saw a Black dude shoot him in the head before running over.

"Did he say something? I thought I heard him say something." The Man said and the boy spoke.

"He Called me Carl," The boy said, looking at what Naruto assumed was his father and the Father looked at the boy in surprise before turning back to face them.

"Son you know they don't talk," The Adult said before continuing. "Hey, you two, whats them Bandages for?"

"W-What…?" Rick asked, making the man angry from what Naruto could tell.

"What kinda wound? You answer me, Damn you!" The Man said before continuing after a few seconds. "What's your wound?" The man turned off the safety on his gun and aimed it at them. "You tell me… Or I _will_ kill you two" Naruto felt his eyes roll to the back of his head as he fell into unconsciousness, same as Rick.

When they woke up next, They were tied to chairs and unable to move and their Bandages had been changed. When the man saw them wake up he spoke.

"Got those bandages changed now. It was pretty rank, what was the wound?" The Man asked them.

"Gunshot" The Man looked at Naruto. "I'm an Amnesiac so I don't know," Naruto said before he got a Knife held against his throat.

"How do I know that ain't a Bite under that bandage?" The man said seriously. Naruto looked up at the man, Fear in his eyes.

"Check his wound! If it doesn't look like a bite then he's fine" Rick said suddenly, hoping to god it didn't look like a bite… whatever that meant. The man slowly peeled back the bandages to reveal the wound on his chest and head, it looked like a blade of some kind went straight through his chest and on his head was the kind of scratch you'd get by falling head first on the ground.

The man put the back of his hand against Naruto's forehead and didn't feel any sign of a fever.

"Good, you're not bitten, if you were, fever woulda killed you by now," The man said. "My names Morgan, what about you two?" Morgan asked.

"Names Rick, that's Naruto," Rick said, tilting his head to Naruto slightly before correcting it when he mentioned Naruto's name. Morgan reached for Ricks' forehead and when it got close he flinched away.

"Just let me," Morgan said, making Rick calm down. Morgan placed the back of his hand on Rick's forehead just like he did to Naruto and felt for a fever. "Nope, Nothing," Morgan said as he pulled out a pocket Knife and showed it to Rick.

"Take a moment, look how sharp it is" Morgan started. "If you try _anything_ , I will kill you with it… and don't you think I won't" He finished before cutting the two from their bindings.

"Come on out when you're able to," Morgan said, walking out of the room with his son.

"You alright Naruto?" Rick asked, looking at Naruto who was rubbing his wrists.

"Yeah… Yeah I'm good, I can tell he isn't trying to be mean, he just wants to keep his son safe" Naruto said before standing up and wrapping one of the blankets from the bed to wrap around himself while handing Rick the other one and they walked out of the room to where Morgan and his son were about to eat.

"This place- Fred and Cindy Drake's?" Rick asked, making Naruto slightly confused before realizing that Rick probably knew them.

"Never met 'em," Morgan said and Rick walked around the room with two beds.

"I've been here. This is their place" Rick said, turning to look at Morgan.

"It was empty when we got here," Morgan said before seeing Rick try and peek out the Blankets covering the windows. "Don't do that. They'll see the light" Rick quickly let go. "There's more of 'em out there than usual. I never should've fired that gun today… The sound draws them now they're all over the street… Stupid, using a gun… But it all happened so fast, I didn't think" Rick and Naruto looked at Morgan and Rick spoke up.

"You shot that man today," Rick said and the son spoke up.

"It wasn't no man" Morgan looked at his son. "What the hell was that out of your mouth just now?" the son looked at Rick and Naruto. "It wasn't a man" the son spoke again.

"You shot him in the street out front- a man," Rick said and Morgan cut him off before he could say any more.

"Friend, you need glasses. It was a walker" Morgan nodded his head to the two seats. "Now come on, sit down you both before you fall down," Morgan said as he placed food on their plates.

"Daddy, Blessing," The boy said, making Morgan nod. He held his son's hand and the boy reached out to Naruto after Naruto held Ricks hand who had held Morgans. Naruto smiled at the boy and held his hand.

"Lord, We thank thee for this food, Thy blessings. And we ask you to watch over us in these crazy days. Amen" Both the boy and Naruto said Amen and after a swift kick to the leg by Naruto, Rick said Amen as well.

"Hey Naruto, Do you two even know what's going on?" Morgan asked and Naruto shook his head.

"I woke up today in the hospital, I don't know anything except my name and how the world works" Morgan rubbed his chin.

"But you know about the dead people, right?" Morgan asked and Naruto nodded. "Yeah, tons of them outside the hospital and in the military camp" Naruto said and Morgan shook his head.

"No, not the ones they put down. The ones they didn't- the walkers, like the one I shot today. 'Cause he'd have ripped into you, Try to eat you, taken some of your flesh at least" Naruto and Rick looked shocked. "Well, I guess if this is the first your hearing it, I know how it must sound." Morgan finished.

"They're out there now? In the streets?" Rick asked, turning around to look at the blankets covering the windows. Morgan nodded.

"Yeah… They get more active after dark sometimes. Maybe it's the cool air or- hell, maybe it was just me firing that gun today. But we'll be fine as long as we stay quiet. Probably wander off by morning. But listen, one thing I do know- Don't you get bit. I saw your bandage and that's what we were afraid of… Bites kill you. The Fever burns you out, But then after a while… You come back"

"Seen it happen," The boy said before Morgan rubbed his arm and they ate in silence after that.

 **X-X-X**

When Naruto and the boy fell asleep, Morgan and Rick stayed up to talk.

"Naruto- he your son?" Morgan asked, looking at Rick. Rick looked up at Morgan, surprised he was the one to initiate the conversation.

"Nah, he's about the age of my son though… Maybe a little older" Rick said.

"What about Carl?" Rick looked shocked. "Well, You- you said his name today" Rick smiled.

"He's a little younger than your boy" Morgan nodded before continuing. "He's with his mother?" Morgan asked and Rick looked down before back at Morgan.

"I hope so," Rick said before the Boy spoke up. "Dad… did you ask him?" Morgan chuckled. "Your Gunshot- We've got a little bet going. My boy says your a bank robber" Naruto sat up.

"That's him alright, Deadliest Dillinger. Kapow" Naruto said as he groaned slightly while sitting up. Rick chuckled. "Sheriff's Deputy" Morgan nodded before a car alarm turned on and the Boy shot up from his sleeping position.

"Hey- hey it's Okay, Daddy's here... One of 'em must've bumped a car" Morgan said.

"You sure?" Rick asked and Morgan nodded.

"Happened once before… It went on for a few minutes" Morgan said, grabbing his gun and standing up with Rick and Naruto.

"Get the light, Duane" Morgan said as they walked to the window and Duane quickly flickered off the light. Morgan pulled back the blanket once all the Lights were off and everyone looked outside it.

"The blue one, on the street… Same one as last time…" Morgan said. "I think we're okay" Naruto spoke up.

"That noise- won't it bring more of them?" Naruto asked and Morgan looked at Naruto.

"Nothing we can do about it now," Morgan said before Duane whispered out. "She's Here" Everyone looked at Duane then back outside where they saw a lady walking towards the house.

"Don't look. Get away from the windows. I said go, go on" Morgan said, following the sobbing Duane to the bed. Naruto followed the Zombie woman to the front door which had boards on it and looked through the peephole while Rick went to lay back down. Naruto saw her grab the door handle and begin to twist to try and open the doors. Naruto stepped away from the door and went back to the main room.

"Was she your wife?" Naruto asked and Morgan nodded. "She, Uh… She died in that other room on that bed in there. There was nothing I-I could do about it… That fever, man, Her skin gave off a heat like a furnace" Morgan looked down and back up. "I should've put her down, man, I should've put her down. I know that, But I-I… You know what? I just didn't have it in me… She's the mother of my child."

 **X-X-X**

The next morning, Naruto and Rick walked out of the house wearing white t-shirts and sweatpants with Masks over both of their heads. Morgan and Duane followed them out and stood on the balcony while Naruto and Rick both walked towards a zombie with a blunt object in hand.

Rick was holding a Baseball Bat while Naruto was holding a Golf Club.

"Don't forget, they're dead… except for something in the brain… that's why it's gotta be the head" Morgan said, looking at Naruto more than Rick since Naruto was so young and was about to kill someone… even if they were already dead.

When they both reached the closest Zombie to them, they took their weapons and swung as hard as possible at the head. Naruto unconsciously channeled Chakra into his arms so when his weapon landed, it crushed the zombie's skull faster than a hot knife through butter while it took Rick a few swings to crush his zombie's skull.

"We should head to my House and go to the Police Station, they probably have stuff there we can use," Rick said after killing his Zombie.

When they got there Rick spoke up. "They're alive- my wife and son," Rick said. "At least they were when they left"

"How can you know? By the look of this place-" Morgan started before Rick cut him off.

"I found empty drawers in the bedroom," Rick said, looking around at his old house. "They packed some clothes, Not a lot but enough to travel"

"You know anybody could've broken in here and taken them clothes, Right?" Morgan said and Naruto spoke up.

"There are parts of the walls that have nails in them. Now correct me if I'm wrong but most of the time, putting nails in a wall is to hang up photos… and I don't see any photos" Rick nodded at Naruto.

"He's right, there were photo's all over this house, think a random thief stole those too?" After a few moments of Silence, Duane spoke up.

"There in Atlanta I bet" Everyone looked at Duane then Morgan to explain. "Refugee center, Huge one they said before the broadcasts stopped… Military protection, food, shelter. They told people to go there, said it'd be safest" Morgan said.

"They also have the CDC" Naruto said, looking up at Rick. "Have they said anything about this?" Naruto asked Morgan who nodded.

"Yeah, said they were working out how to solve this thing," Morgan said, watching as Rick nodded and grabbed a set of keys.

"That our way into the police station?" Naruto asked and Rick nodded. "Yeah, they probably got guns there so we can protect ourselves" everyone nodded.

 **X-X-X**

When they arrived and noticed how dark it was, Naruto fished through a backpack he had grabbed from Rick's house and handed him a flashlight. Rick nodded in thanks and shined the flashlight inside while walkings slowly, everyone following behind him.

They all walked into the shower room and Rick twisted the knob a bit a suddenly, after a few seconds, the Water turned on. "Gas lines have been down maybe a month," Morgan said, looking at Rick to explain.

"The stations got its own propane system," Rick said, putting his hand under the shower water. "Pilot's still on," Rick said and everyone got undressed and under a shower. Rick and Naruto both took off their bandages and cleaned them, which stung quite a bit but it needed to be done.

Once everyone got out of the shower, they wrapped a towel around their waists and sat down. "Duane, there is a dressing room back there," Rick said, pointing to the back.

"Thank you," Duane said before leaving the three alone while Naruto and Rick re-wrapped their wounds. Once they heard the door close they began to talk.

"So… Atlanta sounds like a good idea" Naruto said and Rick nodded. "Safer anyway- people, shelter, Military, etc."

"That's where we were headed. Things got crazy. Man, you wouldn't believe the panic" Morgan said as he looked at the changing room Duane was in before back at Rick and Naruto. "Streets weren't fit to be on… and then my- my wife couldn't travel- No, not with her hurt- so we had to find a place to lay low. And then after she died, we just stayed hunkered down. I guess we just froze in place"

"You planning on moving on?" Naruto asked before Morgan ruffled his hair with his hand.

"Haven't worked up to it yet" Morgan said before they stopped talking and all got dressed. When Duane came out of the dressing room, they walked to the armory and Rick unlocked it.

"A lot of its gone missing" Rick said before Duane asked his father something.

"Daddy, Can I learn to shoot?" Duane said before continuing. "I'm old enough" Morgan cut him off right at the end of his sentence.

"Hell yes, you're going to learn. But we gotta do it carefully, teach you to respect the weapon" Rick spoke up after Morgan finished.

"That's right, It's not a toy. You pull the trigger, you have to mean it. Always remember that Duane" Rick said, poking Duane in the chest.

"Yes Sir," Duane said before Rick started talking again.

"And Naruto, I'll be teaching you to shoot on the way to Atlanta" Naruto nodded to Rick and Rick handed Morgan a Sniper Rifle.

"You take that one. nothing fancy. The scopes accurate" Rick said as Morgan looked through the scope. Naruto and Duane both filled a Bag with ammo and guns and when they finished they all went outside.

"Conserve your ammo. It goes faster than you think, Especially at target practice" Rick said as Morgan asked Duane to take a bag to the car. "Are you sure you won't come along?" Rick asked.

"A few more days. By then Duane will know how to shoot and I won't be so rusty." Rick sighed before opening one of the police car doors and grabbing two walkie-talkies and turning them on. When he heard them ring due to how close they were, he handed one to Morgan.

"You've got one battery. I'll turn mine on a few minutes every day at dawn. You get up there, that's how you'll find me" Rick said and Morgan nodded.

"You think ahead," Morgan said, taking the walkie-talkie from Rick.

"Can't afford not to, not anymore" Rick said, following Morgan.

"Listen, One thing- They may not seem like much one at a time, But in a group, all riled up and hungry- man, you watch your ass," Morgan said as they shook hands.

"You're a good man, Rick. I hope you find your wife and son." Morgan said before turning to Naruto. "And I hope you get your memories back" Naruto smiled and nodded before turning around with Rick and seeing a Zombie.

"Leon Basset? I didn't think much of him- careless and dumb- but… I can't leave him like this." Rick said.

"You know they'll hear the shot," Morgan said and Rick nodded.

"Let's not be here when they show up," Rick said as he walked towards the zombie. "Rick, let me…" Naruto said, making Rick nod and hand him a pistol from one of the bags. Naruto held the gun with both hands and pressed the barrel up against the Zombie's head and he quickly pushed against the trigger in a smooth motion and the bullet fired into the Zombie's head, killing it.

They both ran to the police car and tossed the guns and ammo into the back seat before driving away. They drove quite a ways away before Naruto spoke.

"Why don't we try the radio? See if we can contact anyone!" Naruto said, hoping that it would break the uncomfortable silence. Rick looked at Naruto in surprise before smiling.

"Good idea, Naruto. That way if there is anyone in Atlanta we can let them know that we're coming" Rick said as he rubbed Naruto's hair before grabbing the walkie-talkie and speaking into it.

"Broadcasting on the emergency channel. Will be approaching Atlanta on highway 85. Anybody reads, please respond" Rick said, stopping for a moment before continuing. "Hello? Hello? Can anybody hear my voice? Anybody out there? Anybody hears me, please respond. Hello? Can you hear my voice?"

 **X- Right Outside Atlanta at a Camp -X**

" _Hello? Hello? Can anybody hear my voice?_ " Nearly everyone got up from where they were sitting and ran over to the radio.

"Hey, Hello?" A blond girl said, talking into the walkie-talkie. " _Can you hear my voice?_ " the girl smiled in happiness. "Yes, I can hear you. You're coming through. Over"

" _If anybody reads, please respond_ " Suddenly, with those few words, everybody's smiles dropped. " _Broadcasting on the Emergency channel. We will be approaching Atlanta on Highway 85. If anybody reads, please respond_ "

"We're just outside the city… Damn it, Hello? Hello?" The blond girl turned to an old man standing next to her. "He couldn't hear me. I couldn't warn him"

"Try to raise him again," The old man said, "Come on son, you know best how to work this thing." The old man spoke and as soon as he said that an Axe landed on the stump with the radio on it.

"Hello, Hello. Is the person who called still on the air?" Silence. "This is officer Shane Walsh broadcasting to person unknown. Please respond." The radio crackled for a second before they turned it off.

"He's gone," Shane said, placing the walkie-talkie down. "There are others. It's not just us." A lady with a little boy next to her said. "We knew there would be, right? That's why we left the C.B. on"

"A lot of good its been doing" The same lady spoke. "I've been saying for a week we ought to put signs up on 85 to warn people away from the city."

"Folks got no idea what they're getting into," Said the blond lady before Shane stood up. "Well, we haven't had time," Shane said and the lady started talking again.

"I think we need to make time." Shane rubbed his face. "Yeah, That- That's a luxury we can't afford," Shane said. "We are surviving here. We are day to day"

"And who the hell would you propose we send?" The old man asked. "I'll go, Give me a vehicle," the lady said.

"Nobody goes anywhere alone. You know that" Shane said and the Girl nodded before storming off after saying a quick 'Yes sir'. The little boy that had been standing by her side the entire time tried to follow her but was stopped by Shane.

"Hey hey hey. Go on, take a seat, bud. You're all right. Go on. You're all right" Shane said before chasing after her. "What, Are you pissed at me?" Shane said before she walked into a tent and he followed after her. "You can be pissed at me all you want. It's not going to change anything… I'm not putting you in danger, Okay? I'm not doing it for anything." Shane said.

"That may make you feel like sometimes you want to slap me upside the head- I'll tell you what, Girl: You feel that need, you go right ahead. I'm right here. go on." Shane said before continuing. "You cannot walk off like that, All half-cocked. Look, you do not want to do it for my sake or your sake, that's fine. But just- you do it for him. That boy has been through too much and he's not losing his mother too, okay?" She nodded.

"I'm a good mom," she said before they kissed for a while before they heard a little boys voice.

"Mom?" the boy said and Shane walked out before he got too close. "What's up, bud? She's in there. Go on" Shane said as he walked away.

"Hey, I don't want you to worry. Your mama's not going anywhere, Okay? Yeah? Yeah? Go finish your chores"

 **X- With Naruto and Rick -X**

Rick pulled down the Sun Visor and grabbed the photo of him and his wife and sun before putting it in his pocket. "You ready, Naruto?" Rick said as he exited the Vehicle with Naruto and grabbed the bags of Guns and ammo from the back seat.

"Yeah, I'm ready," Naruto said as he grabbed the two bags handed to him and put them over one shoulder and under the other. "What am I? Your pack mule?" Naruto said with a Glare and Rick simply laughed.

They walked a few miles at least from what Naruto could tell before they ran across a house.

"Hello? Police Officer out here. Can I borrow some gas?" Rick said as they both walked up to the house. Rick knocked before speaking again. "Hello? Anybody home?" Rick said as he checked the windows. When they got to the last window on the deck they saw something horrifying. A man who had blown his own head off with a shotgun and killed his wife with ' **God Forgive Us'** written on the wall with what looked like blood.

Naruto threw up in his mouth a little bit and ran away as soon as he saw it and Rick looked at it a bit longer before leaving as well. Suddenly, as they were leaving (after checking the car) they noticed two horses in a fenced area.

"Think they're nice?" Naruto asked, an attempt at humor at which he failed miserably at again. Rick nodded and grabbed some rope before leading Naruto to the Horses. The horse neighed in fear and after a few seconds of working, they managed to calm and lead the horses out of there.

After a bit of searching, they found two saddles to which they strapped on the horses and got on them.

"Just go easy, Okay? I haven't done this for years" Rick said and suddenly the horse sped up, taking Rick with him. Naruto just laughed before speeding up his horse and chasing after them.

Once they got to the highway, they slowed down to catch their breaths and started trotting to the City. Once they got into the City, they noticed it was unusually empty and had a bunch of empty military vehicles. As they were trotting, they noticed a military Helicopter in a building reflection and sped up but stopped once they turned a corner and saw a hoard of Zombies.

"Oh, Shit! Run Rick!" Naruto said as they both turned around and got the hell out of there but the hoard began to chase them. Suddenly they were surrounded on all sides and they quickly got off their horses and slid underneath a Tank to which they found a hatch at the bottom which they climbed into. Naruto went up to have a look outside and saw a huge hoard of Zombies so he quickly shut the hatch and just in time to see a zombie nearly kill Rick but he shot it, giving him a great amount of pain in his ears.

" _Hey, You. Yeah, you. In the tank. You cozy in there?_ "

 **Aaaaand That's Episode 1 of 'Dusk of Mankind'! My Naruto X Walking Dead Crossover!  
I Hope you enjoyed because I sure as hell enjoyed writing it (Not really, it took like a week. Going back and forth between episode 1 and this shit? Boring, but also fun in a way) This will be updated Bi-Weekly so... Yeah!  
See ya!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Sorry for not updating for so long! I've been sick and once I got better, turns out Exams are on Monday so I've been studying for those. I am really sorry! I am also sorry if anyone is offended by the use of the N-Word in this chapter.**

 **X-X I Don't Own Naruto/The Walking Dead X-X**

" _Hey, You two alive in there?"_ The man asked through the radio. Naruto and Rick quickly got to the radio but Rick grabbed it first.

"Hello? Hello?" Rick asked quickly.

" _There you are,"_ The man said. " _Had me wondering"_ The man sighed in relief.

"Where are you? Outside?" Rick said nervously. "Can you see us right now?"

" _Yeah, I can see you. You're surrounded by walkers. That's the bad news_ " The man said over the radio.

"There's good news?" Rick asked.

" _No,_ " The man said after a moment of silence.

"Listen, whoever you are, I don't mind telling you we're a little concerned in here," Rick said.

" _Oh man, you should see it from over here,_ " The man said. " _You'd be having a major freak-out_ "

"Got any advice for us?" Naruto asked, hoping the stranger would have some way for them to get out of this alive. The man was silent for a moment.

" _Yeah, I'd say make a run for it,_ " He said " _That's really your only option at the moment after all_ " Naruto and Rick looked at each other before Rick motioned for Naruto to hand over the walkie-talkie.

"That's it? 'Make a run for it'?" Rick asked. "Do you know how stupid that is?"

" _My way's not as dumb as it sounds,_ " The man said. " _You two have eyes on the outside here. There's one geek still up on the tank but the others have climbed down and joined the feeding frenzy where the horses went down. With me so far?_ "

"So far," Rick said.

" _Okay, The street on the other side of the tank is less crowded. If you move now while they're distracted, you'll stand a chance_ " The man said " _Got ammo?_ " Naruto snatched the Walkie-Talkie from him.

"A duffle-bag full of Guns and Ammo," Naruto said before looking in the Bag. "Five pistols, three Assault Rifles, three semi-autos, and four shotguns… and a shit-ton of ammo, and… a Scroll?" Naruto could practically feel the man's eyes widen through the walkie-talkie. Naruto pointed to the soldier and looked at Rick.

Rick slid over to the soldier and searched him before finding a grenade. "another pistol, One clip, 14 rounds"

" _Make those rounds count, don't use the guns in the bag though, that'll make too much noise, save them for when you really need them,_ " The man said. " _Jump off the right side of the tank, keep going in that direction. There's an alley up the street, maybe 50 yards. be there"_ The radio went silent.

"You ready, Rick?" Naruto asked him and Rick nodded. Naruto grabbed the shovel that was on the wall of the tank and the duffle-bags before they both got out of the tank. Naruto saw a zombie right next to them and bashed its skull in with the Shovel before the jumped off.

"Only use that gun when we absolutely need to, I'll keep them off us but if they block the entrance of that alley, get them out of the way," Naruto said as they ran in the direction of the alley, smacking zombies in the head left and right. Once they reached the alley, they saw a zombie in the middle of the entrance so Rick shot it, Catching the attention of the entire horde.

Naruto saw something in the alley and was about to smack it and kill it when it yelled in surprise.

"Whoa! Not dead! Come on you two!" The man said as they ran down the alley as fast as possible, the horde right behind them. "Come on! Hurry up!" All three of them reached a ladder and quickly climbed it, effectively escaping the horde of zombies.

When they reached a place they could stand, they all stopped, out of breath.

"Nice moves kid, a good idea not using the gun unless it was a last resort," the man said to Naruto.

"I'm Naruto, that's Rick," Naruto said, holding his hand out. "Thanks"

"Glenn, you're welcome," He said before looking down and seeing the horde block the only way back down. "Oh no," Glenn looked up at the other ladder before at Rick and Naruto.

"Bright side: It'll be the fall that kills us… I'm the glass-half-full kinda guy" he said before climbing the ladder, Naruto and Rick following after him.

"Back at the Tank, Why'd you stick your neck out for us?" Rick asked as they reached a hatch that led into the building.

"Call it foolish, naive hope, That if I'm ever that far up shit creek, somebody might do the same for me," Glenn said as they climbed down the ladder. When they reached the bottom, they saw two zombies blocking the entrance when two people ran out with baseball bats who smashed their heads in.

"Let's go!" Glenn said as they ran to the door. When they got in, they were slammed against the wall by a blond girl and had guns held to their heads.

"Sons of Bitches, We ought to kill you two," She said, holding the gun closer to their heads.

"Just chill out, Andrea. Back off" One of the people who rescued them said. A black lady spoke up.

"Come on, ease up," she said.

"Ease up? You're kidding me, right?" Andrea said. "We're dead because of these assholes" The man who told her to chill out walked up to her.

"Andrea, I said back the hell off" Andrea looked like she was about to cry.

"We're dead- all of us- because of you two" Andrea said.

"I-I don't understand," Naruto said, slightly scared of the woman that was about to kill them. The man who told her to back off grabbed them and basically dragged them to the front of the building.

"Look, we came to the city to scavenge for supplies. You know what the key to scavenging is? Surviving" He said. "You know what the key to surviving is? Sneaking in and out, tiptoeing. Not shooting and making a shit-ton of noise"

"Every geek from miles around heard you shoot that bullet," A black man said.

"You just rang the dinner bell," Andrea said before one of the males spoke up.

"Get the picture now?"

"What the hell were you two doing out there anyways?" Andrea asked.

"We were trying to flag the helicopter," Naruto said, making everyone look at them in shock.

"Helicopter? Man, that's crap, There ain't no damn helicopter" The black man said, looking back at the entrance of the shop that was being attacked by zombies and had cracks all over it.

"You were chasing a hallucination, imagining things. it happens" Said the black girl. Rick looked at them for a moment before looking back at the doors.

"Well seems me and him were having the same hallucination because I saw it too," Rick said and they went quiet for a moment.

"Hey, T-dog, try that C.B. Can you contact the others?" the man other Glenn, Naruto, T-dog, and Rick said. Naruto and Rick looked at him.

"Others? The refugee center?" Rick asked. The black lady shook her head.

"Yeah, The refugee center. They've got biscuits waiting at the oven for us" She said sarcastically.

"Got no signal. Maybe the roof?" T-Dog said before they heard a loud gunshot.

"Oh no, is that Dixon?" Andrea asked as they all ran up to the roof.

"Come on you two," Glenn said and they looked at each other before sprinting after them. When they got to the roof they saw a man shooting zombies in the head.

"Hey, Dixon! Are you crazy?!" The unnamed guy yelled and Dixon just laughed.

"Hey, Y'all should be more polite to a man with a gun. Huh?" Dixon said as he jumped down from where he was shooting. "Only common sense"

T-dog quickly ran to him.

"Man, you wasting bullets we ain't even got! And you're bringing even more of them down on our ass! Man, just chill" T-dog said.

"Bad enough I got this taco-bender on my ass all day. Now I'm gonna take orders from you? I don't think so, bro. That'll be the day" Dixon said, looking at T-dog.

"'That'll be the day'? You got somethin' you wanna tell me?"

"Hey, T-dog man, Just leave it," the unnamed man said, hoping to get T-dog to back off before he started trouble.

"No!" T-dog said.

"Listen, man, It ain't worth it. Now Merle, Just relax, okay? We've got enough trouble" As he was talking, Rick and Naruto looked to Glenn who shook his head 'no'

"You want to know the day?" Merle said, getting closer to T-dog.

"Yeah!" T-Dog said.

"I'll tell you the day, Mr. 'Yo' It's the day I take orders from a Nigger!" Merle said, making T-Dog extremely pissed off to the point where he tried to hit Merle.

"MotherFu-" T-Dog started but was cut off when he was hit in the face with the Gun in Merle's hand. Naruto watched, wide-eyed as Everyone told him to stop as he was beating up T-Dog. Rick walked over but was punched in the face.

When T-Dog was on the ground, Merle pulled his gun out and held it to T-Dog's head and Andrea begged him not to shoot T-Dog. Merle spits on T-Dogs chest before rubbing it in.

"Yeah! All right! We're gonna have ourselves a little powwow, Huh? Talk about who's in charge. I vote me. Anybody else?" Everyone helped T-Dog off the ground. "Huh? Democracy time, Y'all. Show of hands, huh? All in favor?" Everyone except Rick and Naruto raised their hands.

"Now that means I'm the boss, right?" Merle said. "All right, Anybody else?"

"Yeah," Naruto said, making Merle turn around and hold his gun at him. Naruto's eyes were shadowed by his hair.

"You say something kid?" Merle said before Naruto looked his dead in the eyes. His eyes weren't the Deep Blue anymore, they were not scarlet red with slits for pupils. Naruto grabbed the gun and broke Merle's hand holding it before socking him in the face, sending him to the ground.

Rick ran over to Merle and handcuffed him to a metal rod.

"Who the hell is that kid man?!" Merle said in pain, looking at the now blue-eyed Naruto.

"Naruto Uzumaki," Rick said before grabbing Merle's gun and taking it apart. "Look here, Merle. Things are different now. There are no niggers anymore. No dumb-as-shit, inbred white trash fools either. Only dark meat and white meat. There's us and the dead"

"We survive this by pulling together, not apart" Rick continued before Merle started talking.

"Screw you man, you and that blond brat" Rick sighed.

"I can see you make a habit of missing the point," Rick said.

"Yeah? Well, screw you twice" Rick put the gun up to Merle's head.

"You oughta be polite to the man with a gun, only common sense," Rick said, pressing the gun harder against his head.

"You wouldn't, you're a cop" Merle groaned out.

"All I am anymore is a man looking for his wife and son" Rick started. "Anybody that gets in the way of that is gonna lose… I'll give you a moment to think about that" Rick patted him down before finding cocaine in his pocket.

"Got some on your nose there," Rick said, flicking his nose before walking to the edge of the building.

"What're you gonna do? Arrest me?" Merle said before Rick threw it off the building. "Hey! What're you doing? Man, that was my stuff! Hey!"

"If I get loose you better pray!" Merle shouted. "You hear me?!"

"Yeah, your voice carries," Rick said as he and Naruto walked to the edge of the building and Rick grabbed his fist in rage.

"You're not Atlanta P.D." The man said. "Where you from?"

"Up the road away" Rick said.

"Well, officer friendly from up the road away, welcome to the big city"

 **XXXXXXX**

"How's the signal?" Naruto asked T-Dog who looked up at him in surprise before smiling slightly.

"Like Dixon's brain, weak" Naruto chuckled at him.

"Keep trying," The man said. "I'm Morales by the way," he said before looking back down at the zombies.

"Why? Not like they can do anything… not a damn thing" Andrea said before walking to a backpack.

"Got people outside the city is all. There's no refugee center. That's a pipe dream" Rick nodded at what was said before speaking up.

"Then she's right, we're on our own. It's up to us to find a way out" Rick said, looking around at everyone.

"Good luck with that. These streets ain't safe in this part of town from what I hear. Ain't that right, sugar tits?" Rick and Naruto scoffed before turning back around. "Hey, Honeybunch, what say you get me outta these cuffs, We go off somewhere and bump some uglies? Gonna die anyway"

"I'd rather," Andrea said before grabbing something from the backpack and walking away.

"Rug muncher. I figured as much" Merle said.

"The streets ain't safe… Now there's an understatement" Morales said before Naruto came up with an idea.

"What about under? The sewers?" Naruto said as everyone's eyes widened.

"Hey, Glenn, check the alley, see any manhole covers?" Glenn quickly ran to the other side of the building and checked. Not seeing anything, he ran back.

"No, Must be all out on the streets where the geeks are" The black lady spoke up.

"Maybe not. An old building like this built in the '20s- Big structures like this often had drainage tunnels in case of flooding down in sub-basements"

"How do you know that?" Glenn asked.

"It's my job- was. I worked in the city zoning office"

Everyone quickly got up followed Glenn who knew exactly where to find it, leaving Merle handcuffed on the roof along with T-Dog.

"This is it, are you sure?" Morales asked and Glenn nodded.

"I really scoped this place out last time I was here. It's the only thing in the building that goes down… But I've never gone down it" Glenn said. "Who'd want to, right?" Everyone looked at Glenn.

"Oh. Great" Glenn said before Andrea tried to calm his nerves.

"No, you won't. Not you" Glenn said.

"Why not me? Think I can't?" Andrea said, making Glenn's eyes widen.

"I Wasn't-" He stuttered for a moment before Rick put his hand on his shoulder.

"Speak your mind" Rick said and Glenn was silent for a moment before speaking up.

"Look, Until now, I always came here by myself- in and out, grab a few things- no problem. First time I bring a group- everything goes to hell… No offense" Glenn said. "If you want me to go down this gnarly hole, fine- But only if we do it my way. It's tight down there. If I run into something and have to get out quick. I don't want you all jammed up behind me, getting me killed"

"I'll take one person… Naruto" Glenn said. "You're small, fast, and strong as hell if what you did to Merle is any indication… I want you to come with me. Rick, I've seen you shoot, I'd feel better if you were at the front of the store, covering our asses. Andrea, you've got the only other gun so you should go with him. Morales, Jacqui, you stay here. Something happens, you yell down to us, get us back here in a hurry"

"Okay, everybody knows their jobs, Let's get to it" Rick said as Glenn put the flashlight in his mouth and climbed down the ladder with Naruto following after him.

"Ready, Naruto?" Glenn said and Naruto nodded. They picked a direction and started walking.

 **XXXXXXX**

"Sorry for the gun in your and Naruto's faces," Andrea said.

"People do things when they're afraid" Rick pointed out before Andrea spoke again.

"Not that it was entirely unjustified, you did get us into this," She said, an attempt at humor. Rick and Andrea looked at the doors before back at each other.

"Next time though, Take the safety off. Won't shoot otherwise" Rick said. "That your gun?" he asked.

"It was a gift. Why?" Andrea asked, hoping he wouldn't take her gun away. Rick stretched his hand out, asking for permission to hold it for a second. She handed him the gun and he pushed something on the gun forward.

"Little red dot means its ready to fire. You make have occasion to use it" Rick said, handing the gun back to her.

"Good to know" Andrea nodded, taking the gun back from him.

 **XXXXXXX**

"Anybody out there? Hello? Anybody read? I'm hoping to hear somebody's voice 'cause I'm getting sick and tired of hearing mine" T-Dog said into the walkie-talkie, hoping to contact those outside the city.

"Yeah, well, that makes two of us," Merle said. "Why don't you knock that crap off. You're giving me a headache boy"

"Why don't you pull your head out of your ass, maybe your headache will go away," T-Dog said. "Try some damn positivity for a change. Damn"

"I'll tell you what- you get me out of these cuffs and I'll be all 'sammy sunshine' positive for you" Merle spoke. "Hey, see that Hacksaw over there in that toolbag? Get it for me, Hmm? Make it worth your while. What do you say, man? Come on. Get me out of these things"

"So you can beat my ass again? Or call me Nigger some more?" T-Dog said angrily.

"Come on now. It wasn't personal. It's just that your kind and my kind ain't meant to mix. That's all… Doesn't mean we can't work together" Merle said. "Parley, as long as there's some kind of mutual gain involved… so… about that hacksaw-"

"I guess you want me to get that rifle over there too so you can shoot that cop and kid when they come back up here, huh?" T-Dog said

 **XXXXXXX**

Naruto and Glenn opened a door they found after walking quite a ways and they shone their flashlight's around to see what is in the room. They heard rats squeaking almost every step they took.

"Yeah, we've got ourselves a sewer tunnel," Glenn said. "Jacqui was right"

"Can we cut through this thing?" Naruto asked, motioning to the barred entrance.

"I'm not sure, maybe if we had a blow-torch we could… but I'm not an expert on this stuff" Glenn said. They suddenly heard a noise so they shined their flashlights into the tunnel and saw a zombie eating one of the rats, scaring the shit out of the two.

 **XXXXXXX**

Rick looked back to Andrea and saw she was looking at a necklace on one of the jewelry racks so Rick walked over to her.

"See something you like?" Rick asked her, looking at the necklace.

"Not me, but I know someone who would- My sister," Andrea said. "She's still such a kid in some ways… Unicorns, Dragons. She's into all of that stuff, but Mermaids… they rule. She loves mermaids"

"Why not take it?" Rick asked.

"There's a cop staring at me" she joked "Would it be considered looting?" She asked seriously.

"I don't think those rules apply anymore, do you?" Andrea nodded and took it off the stand before they heard glass shatter and the zombies break through the first layers of doors and everyone ran through the doors.

"Find anything down there?" Rick asked, looking at Glenn and Naruto who shook their heads no.

"Not a way out," Naruto said.

"We need to find a way out," Andrea said "And fast"

 **XXXXXXX**

"That construction site, those trucks- they always keep keys on hand," Rick said as he handed the binoculars to Morales who looked at the construction site before looking down at the road which was full of zombies.

"You'll never make it past the walkers," Morales said, handing Rick the binoculars back.

"You got me and Naruto out of that tank," Rick said and everyone looked at Glenn.

"Yeah, but that's because they were feeding, they were distracted," Glenn said and Naruto spoke up.

"Can we distract them again?" Naruto asked Glenn and before he could speak, Merle spoke up.

"Wait, he's onto something. A diversion, like on 'Hogan's Heros'" Merle said and Jacqui spoke up.

"God. Give it a rest," She told Merle.

"They're drawn by sound, right?" Rick asked and Glenn nodded.

"Right, like dogs. They hear a sound, they come" Glenn said.

"What else?" Rick asked and Morales looked at him.

"Aside from they hear you? They see you, smell you and if they catch you, they eat you" Morales said and Rick looked up in surprise.

"They can tell us by smell?" Rick asked.

"Can't you?" Glenn asked.

"They smell dead, we don't. It's pretty distinct" Andrea said and Rick ran into the store with Naruto and everyone else following him. Naruto knew exactly what Rick was thinking and grabbed a bunch of White Shirts and gloves and tossed them to everyone.

"If bad ideas were an Olympic event, this would take the gold" Glenn said as he began to put on the gloves and white shirt.

"He's right, just stop, okay? Take some time to think this through" Morales said and Rick looked at him.

"How much time? They already got through one set of doors, that glass won't hold forever" Rick said as everyone put the gloves and white shirts on and ran outside and grabbed one of the two zombie bodies and ran back inside. Naruto and Rick put masks on and Rick grabbed a crowbar before breaking the glass to an axe.

Rick ran at the corpse with the axe and stopped before hitting him and threw it to the ground before searching the man's pockets and pulling out his wallet and looking in it.

"Wayne Dunlap… Georgia license. Born in 1979…" Rick said, handing Glenn the I.d. "He had $28 in his pocket when he died… and a picture of a pretty girl. 'With love, from Rachel'" Rick said. "He used to be like us- worrying about bills or the rent or the super bowl… If I ever find my family, I'm gonna tell them about Wayne" Rick said as he put the mask back on and grabbed the axe.

"One more thing," Glenn said. "He's an organ donor" With that last thing being said, Naruto and Rick both brought their weapon down on the corpse to get as many guts and as much blood out as possible so they could coat their clothes in it.

Everyone started gagging and Glenn almost threw up then Rick handed the axe to Morales.

"Keep chopping," Rick said and after a few more seconds of chopping, he stopped.

"Don't get any on your skin or in your eyes" Naruto said and everyone reached down to grab a chunk of bloody flesh and wiped it all over Naruto, Rick, and Glenn's clothes. Once they finished they walked outside and walked among the zombies.

Glenn, Naruto and Rick all went underneath a bus out in the middle of the street and climbed underneath it to get to the other side.

 **XXXXXXX**

Everyone ran up the steps and slammed open the door to the roof and ran over to T-Dog.

"Hey, T-Dog, try that C.B." Morales said as he looked down at the trio from the roof with his binoculas.

"That asshole is out on the street with the handcuff keys?" Merle said, looking angry until T-Dog pulled something out of his pocket, revealing it to be the handcuff keys.

 **XXXXXXX**

 **At the Camp outside of town**

 **XXXXXXX**

"Boy, that hose isn't long for this world, is it?" The old man said, tinkering with an RV.

"No sir" a man said.

"Where the hell are we gonna find a replacement?" The old man spoke.

"It's late, they should have been back by now" a blond girl said, pacing back and forth.

"Worrying won't make it better"

" _Hello, Base camp!_ " T-Dog's voice was heard through the radio. " _Can anybody out there hear me?_ _Basecamp, this is T-Dog. Anybody hear me?_ "

"Hello? Hello?" The old man picked up the walkie-talkie. "Reception's bad on this end. Repeat, Repeat"

" _Shane is that you?_ " T-Dog asked. " _We're in some deep shit_. _We're trapped in the department store. There are geeks all over the place, hundreds of 'em. We're surrounded"_

"T-Dog, repeat that last. Repeat" The old man said, turning a dial on the radio and the radio went silent.

"He said the department store," a girl said, her son standing next to her.

"I heard it too," The old man said, looking down at the group of people.

"Shane?" The girl with her son asked, looking at Shane.

"No way, we do not go after them. We do not risk the rest of the group. Y'all know that" Shane said, looking at everyone.

"So we're just going to leave here there?" The blond girl asked angrily.

"Look, Amy, I know that this is not easy-" Shane was cut off when Amy spoke.

"She volunteered to go," Amy said. "To help the rest of us"

"I know, and she knew the risks, right?" Shane said. "See, if she's trapped, she's gone. So we just have to deal with that… There's nothing we can do"

"She's my sister, you son of a bitch," Amy said as she stormed off

 **XXXXXXX**

Rick, Naruto, and Glenn all were walking down the road full of zombies.

"It's gonna work… I can't believe it" Glenn whispered to Naruto and Rick.

"Don't draw attention to yourself" Rick whispered back sharply and after a few seconds of walking, it began to rain but Rick, Naruto, and Glenn kept walking, but much more cautiously.

"The smells washing off, isn't it?" Glenn said a bit louder than a whisper.

"No, No it's not… Well, maybe" Suddenly a zombie roared at them and Rick chopped it in the head with the axe.

"Run!" Naruto shouted and they all ran for the construction site with the zombies chasing after them, chopping them in the head only when needed and when they reached the gate, they climbed it just in time to avoid the zombies.

Everyone took off their coats and Rick shot at the zombies climbing the gate while Naruto broke open the key box and grabbed a pair of keys.

"Rick!" Naruto shouted as he tossed him the keys and they ran to the truck labeled on the key.

Once they got inside, they started the car and drove away from the City.

"Oh my god, Oh my god. They're all over that place" Glenn panted.

"You need to draw them away. Those roll-up doors at the front of the store- That area? -That's what I need to be cleared. Raise your friends. Tell them to get down there and be ready" Rick said.

"And I'm drawing the geeks away how? I-I missed that part" Glenn asked.

"Noise," Rick said and they drove in silence until they reached a car where they broke open the window and got the alarm blaring. Rick got the car to start after they had Radio'd the group to get ready for pickup and Glenn drove it to the store and sped past to catch the attention of all the zombies in front of it while Rick and Naruto drive the truck to the front of the store, now clear of zombies.

Everyone jumped into the truck after putting their bags in and they drove off.

"I dropped the damn key," T-Dog said and everyone was silent for a moment before Andrea spoke up.

"Where's Glenn?" Naruto and Rick just smiled

 **DONE!  
Got this done in a day so Y'all should be happy I worked so hard for you!  
Hope you enjoy!  
Peace!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey Everyone!  
New chapter! Yay!  
Hope you enjoy this chapter!**

"So, Naruto… How'd you take down Merle like that?" Morales asked Naruto, who was sitting in the passenger seat next to Rick.

"I don't have a clue, to be honest… I remember feeling something warm flow through my body before it happened. I was so angry at Merle when he said those things to T-Dog… So I walked up to him and just did it" Naruto explained, hoping that would clear up things. Rick drove in silence for a while before Morales began to talk to Rick, who had been silent the whole ride.

"Best not to dwell on it," Morales said, making Rick look at him in surprise. "Merle got left behind. Nobody's gonna be sad he didn't come back… Except, maybe Daryl" Morales said and Rick looked over at him.

"Daryl? Who's that?" Rick asked and Morales looked ahead at the road.

"His brother" Suddenly everyone heard the Alarm of a car getting closer and closer and it was revealed to be the car Rick broke into for Glenn to distract the zombies and it sped past them and kept driving.

"At least somebody's having a good day," Morales said and they drove the rest of the way in silence.

 **XXXXXXX**

"Baby, the more you fidget the longer it takes, so don't, okay?" The lady said, giving her son a haircut.

"I'm trying" the boy complained before the lady straightened his head to get a better angle for cutting his hair.

"Well, try harder," She said and Shane spoke up.

"You think this is bad? Just wait until you start shaving. That stings. That day comes, you'll be wishing you had one of your momma's haircuts" Shane said, cleaning his shotgun in front of them.

"I'll believe that when I see it," the boy said and Shane chuckled.

"Tell you what- you just get through this with some manly dignity and tomorrow I'll teach you something special. I will teach you to catch frogs" Shane said.

"I've caught a frog before," the boy said, wondering if that was it.

"I said frogs- plural," Shane said. "It is an art, my friend. It is not to be taken lightly. There are ways and means few people know about. I'm willing to share my secrets" the boy looked back at his mom.

"Oh, I'm a girl. You talk to him" She said, turning his head again.

"It is a one-time offer, bud- not to be repeated," Shane said as he went back to cleaning the gun.

"Why do we need frogs, plural?" the boy asked and Shane smiled.

"You ever eat frog legs before?" Shane asked and the boy made a face.

"Eww!" the boy said and Shane quickly responded.

"No, Yum!" he said.

"No, he's right. Eww" the mom said, going back to the boy's haircut.

"When you get down to that last can of beans, you're gonna be lovin' those frog legs, lady. I can see it now- 'Shane, do you think I could have a second helping, please? Please? Just one'" Shane said, imitating her voice as a joke.

"Yeah, I doubt that," she said with a smile on her face.

"Don't listen to her man, you and me, we'll be heroes. We'll feed these folks, Cajun-style Kermit legs" Shane joked again.

"I'd rather eat Ms. Piggy," she said and was silent for a moment "Yes, that came out wrong" Shane chuckled.

"Heroes son, spoken of in song and legend, you and me, Shane and Carl" Suddenly they heard the car alarm blaring loudly and getting closer.

"Talk to me, Dale!" Shane said as he ran up the hill to the RV.

"I can't tell yet," Dale said, looking through his binoculars.

Is it them? Are they back?" Amy asked and Dale looked through the binoculars and saw a red car speeding towards them.

"I'll be damned," Dale said as he put the binoculars down and looked at everyone.

"A stolen car is my guess," Dale said as the car stopped and Glenn got out of it. "Holy crap! Turn that damn thing off!"

"I don't know how!" Glenn said and Shane told him to pop the hood so he did while Amy was asking him if Andrea was alright. Once Shane unplugged the battery, Amy asked again.

"Why isn't she with you? Where is she? She's okay?" Amy asked.

"Yes! Yeah, fine. Everybody is… Well, Merle not so much" Glenn said and Shane looked angrily at him.

"Are you crazy, driving this wailing bastard up here?" Shane said. "Are you trying to draw every walker for miles?"

"I think we're okay," Dale said, looking around for any zombies.

"You call being stupid okay?" Shane asked seriously and Dale looked at him.

"That alarm was blaring all over these hills," Dale said. "Hard to pinpoint the source… I'm not arguing, I'm just saying. It wouldn't hurt you to think things through a little more carefully next time, would it?"

"Sorry," Glenn said. "Got a cool car"

The truck containing everyone else drove up the hill and stopped in front of them.

"Come meet everybody," Morales said as he stepped opened the back and jumped out. Once everybody left the truck, Naruto and Rick stayed behind and talked for a moment.

"You ready, Rick?" Naruto asked and Rick nodded.

"Yeah… I'm just nervous" Rick said and Naruto stepped out of the Truck with Rick and looked over everyone. It was then that Shane, the boy, and his mother noticed Rick and Naruto patted Rick on the back and pushed him forwards to run to his family.

Naruto watched from the sidelines, slightly envious of Rick. Rick had memories of his previous life and his family before everything went to shit, Naruto didn't.

 **XXXXXXX**

"Disoriented" Rick said. "I guess that comes closest… Disoriented… Fear, Confusion- all those things but… Disoriented comes closest"

"Words can be meager things. Sometimes they fall short" Dale said, putting his cup down.

"I felt like I'd been ripped out of my life and put somewhere else. For a while, I thought I was trapped in some coma dream, something I might not wake up from ever… I'm sure Naruto was just as shocked as me when he found out the dead was walking" Rick said, looking over at the blond headed youth.

"So… Naruto was it?" Shane said. "What were you doing before all this happened?" Naruto looked at the ground in silence and didn't answer his question.

"Naruto here is an Amnesiac, He can't remember anything about his previous life" Rick answered for him. Everyone, including those he met in the city, looked at him in shock and he shrunk into himself a little bit at all the attention.

"All I remember is how the world used to work and my name… Naruto Uzumaki… That scroll I found in the bag might hold the clues to my missing memories but I can't open it for whatever reason" Naruto said. Rick looked up at Naruto in surprise.

"I forgot about that, we found that scroll on you when we found you in the first place so we placed it in storage until you woke up," Rick said. "But we couldn't open it either"

Suddenly five words popped into Naruto's mind.

 **Open it with your blood**

Naruto reached into the bag and pulled out the scroll before picking up a stick.

"Any of you have a knife on you?" Naruto asked and Shane nodded and pulled a knife from his pocket and handed it to him. Naruto spent two minutes sharpening the stick and everyone was wondering what he was going to do.

"Here ya go," Naruto said, handing the knife back to Shane and Naruto picked up the, now sharp stick and slashed his hand open with it. Everyone's eyes widened in shock as they watched him do that.

"Now let's see if this works," Naruto said as he grabbed the scroll with his bloody hand and smeared it on it. A loud clicking noise was heard as the scroll rolled open in his hands and everyone was shocked again.

Naruto began to read the scroll, his eyes widening every second at the contents of it. Everyone gathered around him and looked at the scroll but they could see that it was in some foreign language.

"How can you read that?" Rick asked, looking at the Japanese letters. Naruto just shrugged and kept reading. When he finished, he looked over at Rick.

"Are you sure this is mine?" Naruto asked Rick. Everyone looked over at the two of them.

"Well it was on your person and seems to be in your language," Rick said, motioning to the scroll in Naruto's hand. "What's it say anyways?" Rick asked, hoping Naruto would tell them.

"It'd be better if I showed you what it says," Naruto said and he lifted his hand in front of his face and concentrated directly on it and forced his power out of it. After a few seconds everyone was looking at him weirdly but then his hand was engulfed in a blue power, his hand was glowing a light blue.

"W-What the hell?!" Rick asked, getting up to examine it closer, everyone crowding around him to examine the strange blue power emanating from his hand.

"So what can you do with it?" Dale asked Naruto who shrugged his shoulders and let the power dissipate.

"I think it can be used to control the elements and allow me to walk on water, climb trees and do other cool things," Naruto said, and everyone's jaws were agape. Once everyone calmed down, Naruto went back to the scroll and kept reading, while a man by the other campfire set another log in the fire.

"Hey, Ed, you want to rethink that log?" Shane asked, making everyone look over at Ed.

"Its cold, man" Ed said, closing his eyes and leaning back.

"The cold doesn't change the rules, does it?" Shane said. "Keep our fires low, just embers so we can't be seen from a distance, right?" Ed looked over at Shane.

"I said it's cold. You should mind your own business for once" Ed said, making Shane get up and walk over there.

"Hey Ed, you sure you want to have this conversation, man?" Shane said, patting his shoulder.

"Go on. Pull the damn thing out. Go on!" Ed said and Shane pulled out the log and stomped the fire on the log out.

"Hey, Carol, Sophia, how are y'all this evening?" Shane asked, kneeling down in front of them.

"Fine. We're just fine" Carol said.

"Okay," Shane said.

"I'm sorry about the fire," Carol said, looking down at the ground.

"No no no," Shane said. "No apology needed… Y'all have a good night, okay?"

"Thank you" Carol whispered and Shane nodded at them before walking back to the other campfire.

"Thank you for your cooperation," Shane said as he passed Ed.

"Have you given any thought to Daryl Dixon? He won't be happy to hear his brother was left behind" Dale said and T-Dog spoke up.

"I'll tell him, I dropped the key, it's on me," T-Dog said but Rick shook his head.

"I cuffed him. That makes it mine" Rick said.

"Guys, It's not a competition," Glenn said "I don't mean to bring race into this, but it might sound better coming from a white guy" Glenn looked over to T-Dog.

"I did what I did," T-Dog spoke "Hell if I'm gonna hide from him"

"We could lie," Amy said, looking around to see if anyone agreed.

"Or we could tell the truth, Merle was out of control. Something had to be done or he'd have gotten us killed" Andrea said. "Naruto did what was necessary by beating him up, and Rick dod what was necessary by handcuffing him to that metal pipe. And If Merle got left behind, It is nobody's fault but Merle's"

"And that's what we tell Daryl?" Dale spoke. "I don't see a rational discussion to be had from that, do you?" Dale looked over at Andrea. "Word to the wise- We're gonna have our hands full when he gets back from his hunt"

"I was scared and I ran… I'm not ashamed of it" T-Dog said.

"We were all scared. We all ran. What's your point?" Andrea asked.

"I stopped long enough to chain that door… The staircase is narrow, maybe half a dozen geeks can squeeze against it at any one time" T-Dog said, by this time Naruto had put the scroll down and was listening. "It's not enough to break through that- Not that chain, not that padlock… My point is Dixon's alive and he's still up there, handcuffed on that roof... That's on us" T-Dog stood up and walked away.

Once everyone went to bed, Rick went with his wife and son, and Naruto slept in the back of the truck since there weren't enough tents. Not that he minded, he needed some time to think things through. Learning he had superpowers? He needed time to process. Alone. Naruto looked at his hand again and saw it was fully healed. It had healed about a minute after cutting it open which shocked him, but he assumed it was something chakra related.

 **XXXXXXX**

"Morning" Rick said to a random person and they gave a quick 'Morning' back. When Rick reached the top of the hill, he saw Carol drying his clothes.

"They're still a little damp. The Sun'll have them dry in no time" Carol said.

"You washed my clothes?" Rick asked.

"Well, as best we could, scrubbing on a washboard ain't half as good as my Maytag back home, I washed both yours and Naruto's," Carol said.

"That's very kind. Thank you" Rick said, and she smiled before Rick walked to Glenn.

"Look at them, Vultures," Glenn said, talking about the ones taking the car apart. "Yeah, go on, strip it clean"

"Generators need every drop of fuel they can get. Got no power without it. Sorry, Glenn" Dale said and Glenn looked over at Rick.

"Thought I'd get to drive it at least a few more days," Glenn said sadly.

"Maybe we'll get to steal another one someday," Rick said as he patted Glenn's shoulder and walked away to Lori.

"Morning, Officer," Lori said, hanging clothes on a clothesline with clothespins.

"Hey," Rick said, walking closer to her.

"You sleep okay?" Lori asked and Rick nodded.

"Better than in a long time," Rick said, then he noticed the back of the truck open and Naruto step out.

"Hey, Naruto!" Rick said and waved him over. "This is my wife, Lori," Rick said, introducing the two.

"Nice to meet you officially, Naruto," Lori said with a smile and Naruto smiled back at her.

"Nice to finally meet the person who Rick and I have been looking for since we met up," Naruto said before looking at Rick.

"Listen, Rick… I've been thinking about that guy we left behind. Merle" Naruto said with a frown.

"You're not serious," Lori said before they heard a car approach the camp and everyone turned to the black car.

"Water's here Y'all," Shane said. "Just a reminder to boil before use" Rick and Naruto turned back to Lori.

"And you want to go along?" Lori asked Rick who just nodded.

"Well I think it's crazy" Lori spoke. "I think it's just the stupidest way to break your-" Lori was cut off by a scream by the kids and everyone rushed over. Lori hugged Carl who ran into her arms while everyone else continued forward. Once they saw a zombie eating a dear, they stopped and Naruto held his weapon like a spear before channeling Chakra into it, giving it a blue hue, surprising everyone.

"What're you doing Naruto?" Rick asked and Naruto just took aim and threw his pitchfork at the zombie and it went straight through its head like a hot knife through butter.

"That," Naruto said with a smile but his smile immediately dropped when they heard a twig snap nearby. Naruto pulled the pitchfork from the zombies head and held it while waiting for whatever it was to reveal itself. When it finally revealed itself, it was a person and everyone's weapons dropped.

"Son of a bitch," the man said "That's my dear… look at it all gnawed on by this… stupid, disease-bearing motherless poxy bastard" He said, kicking the zombie.

"Calm down son, that's not helping," Dale said, trying to calm down the man.

"What do you know about it, Old man? Take that stupid hat and go back to 'On Golden Pond'" The man sighed. "I've been tracking this deer for miles… gonna drag it back to camp, cook us up some venison. What do you think? Do you reckon we can cut around this chewed up part right here?"

"I would not risk that," Shane said and the man sighed again.

"That's a damn shame" He muttered. "I got some squirrel- about a dozen or so"

"That'll have to do," Dale said. Once they got back, The man yelled out.

"Merle!" He shouted and Naruto and Rick looked at each other, realizing the same thing. This is Daryl. "Merle! Get your ugly ass out here! I got us some squirrel, Let's stew 'em up"

"Daryl, just slow down a bit. I need to talk to you" Shane said, walking up to Daryl.

"About what?" Daryl asked.

"About Merle," Shane said. "There was a- There was a problem in Atlanta"

"He dead?" Daryl asked softly.

"We're not sure," Shane said.

"He either is or he ain't!" Daryl said, getting slightly angry while Rick and Naruto walked up.

"No easy way to say this so I'll just say it," Rick said.

"Who are you two?" Daryl asked.

"Rick Grimes," Rick said. "That's Naruto Uzumaki"

"Well, Rick Grimes and Naruto Uzumaki. You got something you wanna tell me?" Daryl asked, getting angry.

"Your brother was a danger to us all, So Naruto beat his ass and I handcuffed him on a roof, to a piece of metal. He's still there" Rick said.

"Hold on, Lemme process this" Daryl said. "So, You handcuffed my brother to a roof and you left him there?!" and Rick just nodded.

"Yeah" Daryl threw the squirrels at him and rushed him but was stopped by Naruto's fist connecting with his jaw but then Daryl pulled out a knife and started slashing at Naruto, who got cut on the arm out of surprise but dodged the rest. Suddenly he was in a chokehold by Shane and Rick took the knife and looked over at Naruto.

"You okay, Naruto?" Rick asked and Naruto removed his hand from the cut, revealing it to be rapidly closing itself.

"You best let me go!" Daryl shouted and Shane kept him in the chokehold.

"Nah, I think its better if I don't," Shane said.

"Chokeholds Illegal" Daryl said and Shane nodded.

"Yeah, you can file a complaint," Shane said, and Rick kneeled down to Daryl's level.

"I'd like to have a calm discussion on this topic," Rick said. "Do you think you can manage that?" When Daryl nodded, Shane let him go.

"What I did was not on a whim, your brother does not work and play well with others," Rick said.

"It's not Rick's fault. I had the key. I dropped it" T-Dog said.

"You couldn't pick it up?!" Daryl asked.

"Well, I dropped it in a drain," T-Dog said.

"If it's supposed to make me feel better, it doesn't," Daryl said.

"If it doesn't, maybe this will… I chained the door to the roof- so the geeks couldn't get at him- With a padlock" T-Dog said.

"Its gotta count for something," Rick said and Daryl turned to look at him.

"To hell with all Y'all! Just tell me where he is so I can go get him" Daryl said and Lori spoke up.

"Naruto and Rick'll show you" Lori spoke. "Isn't that right?"

"We're going back," Naruto said and Daryl nodded before walking off. After a few minutes of getting ready, Rick and Naruto walked up the hill to go meet with Daryl.

"So that's it, huh? Just gonna walk off? To hell with everybody else?" Shane asked.

"I'm not saying to hell with anybody," Rick said "Not you Shane; Lori least of all"

"Tell her that," Shane said.

"She knows" Rick responded.

"Well, Well I don't so could you just throw me a bone here, Man? Could you just tell me, why?" Shane asked. "Why would you risk your life for a douchebag like Merle Dixon"

"You wanna know why I'm doing it?" Naruto asked and Shane nodded.

"Because… Those that don't follow the rules are trash, that is true" Everyone started listening in at this point. "But those that abandon their comrades… They're lower than trash… I don't want to be lower than trash" Naruto looked over at Glenn.

"Oh, Come on," Glenn said.

"You know the way, You've been there before- In and out, no problem. You said so yourself" Rick spoke. "It's not fair of me to ask- I know that- But I'd feel a lot better with you along, and I know she would too" Rick looked at Lori at the last part and Glenn nodded.

"That's just great, now your gonna risk three men, huh?" Shane said.

"Four" T-Dog said.

"My day just gets better and better, doesn't it?" Daryl said.

"You see anybody else here stepping up to save your brother's cracker ass?" T-Dog asked.

"Why you?" Daryl asked, cleaning his arrows.

"You wouldn't even begin to understand. You don't speak my language" T-Dog said.

"That's four. It's not just four your putting at risk, it's all of us. Just know that Rick" Naruto walked to the truck while those two started talking about exactly what Naruto was going to get. Guns and Ammo.

"Sounds like what you really need here are more guns," Rick said and Naruto jumped out of the truck, two duffel bags in hand and tossed one in between the two, letting the guns spill out.

"We got plenty of those" Naruto said with a grin as he grabbed a pistol and a shotgun and walked away, to let Rick and Lori talk.

Once everyone was ready, they hopped into the truck and drove back to the city

 **XXXXXXX**

"He better be okay, that's my only word on the matter" Daryl spoke up after a long ride of silence, looking at T-Dog.

"I told you, the geeks can't get at him" T-Dog started. "The only thing that's gonna get through that door is us" suddenly the car stopped and Glenn looked back at everyone.

"We walk from here" Glenn said, and everyone got out and started walking.

 **XXXXXXX**

"Dale. Have you seen Carl?" Lori asked Dale who was sitting on top of the RV.

"Shane took him down to the quarry. There was some mighty bold talk about catching frogs" Dale said and Lori looked down at the quarry to see if she could spot him from so high up.

"I'm not getting anything" Carl spoke, catching Shane's attention.

"Yeah. Being all wily, staying submerged. Little suckers, they know something's up. That's what's going on" Shane said. "Just gonna have to do this the old-fashioned way. All right, little man, look. You are the- You are the key in all this, okay? All I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go after one of them, all right, Scare the rest of them off. They're all gonna scatter. I'm gonna drive 'em your way"

"All right" Carl nodded.

"What you need to do is you need to round up every bad boy you see, all right? Are you with me?" Shane asked.

"Yeah!" Carl spoke with a smile.

"Hells yeah. Now give me your mean face" Carl and Shane both made a mean face. "Yes, sir. Are you ready?"

"Yeah!" Carl said again.

"Here we go," Shane said, positioning his bucket and getting ready. Suddenly Shane started splashing around in the water and Carl swept the net around underwater but got nothing but dirt when he pulled it up.

"All right, we gotta start over, now help me find this bucket," Shane said as he felt around in the water

 **XXXXXXX**

Glenn pulled back a fence that was cut open and everyone crawled through.

"All right, let's go get Merle" Naruto said as he and everyone else followed Glenn.

 **XXXXXXX**

"Hey Carl, what did I tell you about not leaving Dale's sight?" Lori said, walking up to the duo who were drying off on the rocks.

"But. Shane said we could catch frogs, remember?" Carl asked his mother.

"It doesn't matter what Shane says. It matters what I say. Go on back to camp" Lori said and stayed behind. "I'll be right behind you"

"I've got to tell you" Shane started. "I do not think you should be taking this out on him"

"I don't think you should be telling me what to do. You've lost that privilege" Lori said and Shane got up after her.

"Lori, could you just wait up a second? I think we should talk, we haven't had a chance-" Loroi cut Shane off in the middle of his sentence.

"No. No no. That's over too. You can tell that to the frogs" Lori said and was about to walk off again when Shane started talking.

"Damn it, Lori. Look, I don't know how it appears to you or what you think-" Lori cut Shane off again.

"How it appears to me? I'm sorry. Is there a gray area here? Let me dispel it" Lori said. "You stay away from me. You stay away from my son. You don't look at him. You don't talk to him. From now on, my family is off-limits to you"

"Lori, I don't think that's fair-" Lori walked up to him.

"My husband is _back_. He is _alive_ " Lori said and walked away.

"He is my best friend. Do you think I'm not happy about that?" Shane spoke and Lori got angry.

"How dare you? Why would you be?" Lori spoke. "You were the one that told me he died. You son of a bitch"

 **XXXXXXX**

Naruto held his hand up in the motion for them to stop and pointed at a zombie in the building they were in before. Daryl walked up to the zombie with his crossbow in hand.

"Damn, you are one ugly skank" Daryl said before shooting her in the head with an arrow. Daryl walked over to her and pulled the arrow out silently. They quickly ran up the stairs and saw the chained door. Rick nodded at T-Dog who walked up and cut the chains and Daryl kicked open the door and everyone ran in.

"Merle! Merle!" Daryl shouted as he ran onto the roof but stopped immediately when he saw Merle's severed hand.

"No! No!" Daryl shouted as tears ran down his face.

 **EARLY CHAPTER. YAYY.  
I'm Doing this since I fucked up my Schedule by not uploading the second chapter on time. Sorry about that btw. New Chapter should be out by Thursday, January 3rd. A day before I go back to school. So Yay!  
Hope you enjoyed. Peace!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Heyyyy Guys!  
Another chapter! Chapter Four!  
I hope you guys enjoy this one! Since I made it so they got the bags of guns and ammo, I need a different way to kidnap Glenn so that part of the story will be a bit different.**

Daryl looked at the severed hand for a moment before raising his crossbow at T-Dog and was about to shoot him when Rick and Naruto put their pistols at his head.

"I won't hesitate. I don't care if every walker in the city hears it" Rick said and Naruto just stayed silent. After a minute of debating within himself, Daryl put the crossbow away from T-Dog's face.

"You got a do-rag or something?" Daryl asked T-Dog and he reached in his pocket and pulled out a blue rag and handed it to Daryl.

"I guess the saw-blade was too dull for the Handcuffs" T-Dog spoke.

"Ain't that a bitch," Daryl said as he laid the rag on the ground and lifted Merle's hand and placed it on the rag before covering it. Daryl motioned for Glenn to turn around, and when he did, he placed the wrapped hand in his backpack.

"He must have used a tourniquet- Maybe his belt" Daryl started. "There'd be much more blood if he didn't" Daryl started following the blood trail.

"Merle! You in here?" Daryl shouted as they made their way down the stairs.

 **XXXXXXX**

"Jim, you okay?" Dale said as he walked up the hill and saw Jim digging a bunch of holes. "You keep this up your gonna keel over out here" When Jim didn't respond, Dale held up a canteen of water but Jim just kept digging.

 **XXXXXXX**

When everyone reached the bottom of the stairs, they saw a zombie which Daryl shot with an arrow from his crossbow.

"Had enough in him to take out these two sons of bitches" Daryl stated, pointing at the two corpses laying on the ground.

"One-handed too" Naruto pointed out, talking about Merle's severed hand.

"Toughest asshole I ever met, my brother" Daryl spoke. "Feed him a hammer, he'd crap out nails"

"Any man can pass out from blood loss. No matter how tough he is"

 **XXXXXXX**

Amy and Andrea walked into camp with tons of fish on a metal chain.

"Oh, Baby. WIill you look at that?" Morales said, walking over to the two. "Hey, Check it out… ladies… because of you, my children will eat tonight, Thank you"

"Thank Dale," Andrea said. "It's his canoe and gear"

"Mom, look. Look at all the fish!" Carl said as Morales brought the fish closer to Lori to freak her out a bit.

"Thank you," Lori said sarcastically while Carl poked one of the fish.

"Whoa," Carl muttered.

"Yeah, Whoa. where did you two learn to do that?" Lori asked.

"Our dad" Amy spoke and Carl looked over at them.

"Can you teach me how to do that?" Carl asked, hoping they would teach him their ways.

"Sure. I'll teach you all about nail knots and stuff" Amy said. "If that's okay?" Amy asked, looking over at Lori.

"You won't catch me arguing," Lori said and Andrea looked over at Dale.

"Hey, Dale. When's the last time you oiled those line reels? They are a disgrace" Andrea joked.

"I, uh, I don't want to alarm anyone, but we may have a bit of a problem," Dale said, pointing up at Jim who was still digging.

 **XXXXXXX**

"Merle!" Daryl shouted.

"We're not alone here. Remember?" Rick said, walking up behind Daryl to look around the other corner.

"Screw that. He could be bleeding out. You said so yourself" Daryl said as he walked forwards, everyone else following behind him. After a few seconds of walking, they saw a small fire and an iron steak weight, crusted with skin.

"Seems he cauterized his wound to stop the bleeding," Naruto said and Daryl looked at Naruto and Rick.

"Nobody can kill Merle but Merle," Daryl said as he walked to a broken window.

"Don't take that on faith, he's lost a lot of blood," Rick said.

"Yeah?" Daryl said. "Didn't stop him from busting out of this death trap"

"He left the building?" Glenn said, surprised. "Why the hell would he do that?"

"Why wouldn't he?" Daryl asked. "He's out there alone as far as he knows, doing what he's gotta do. Surviving"

"You call that surviving?" T-Dog said. "Just wandering out in the streets, maybe passing out? What're hsi odds out there?"

"No worse than being handcuffed and left to rot by you sorry pricks," Daryl said. "You couldn't kill him, ain't so worried about some dumb dead bastard"

"What about 1,000 dumb dead bastards? Different story?" Rick said.

"Why don't you take a tally? Do what you want. I'm gonna go get him" Daryl said and when he tried to walk past Rick, he got pushed back.

"Get your hands off me, You can't stop me" Daryl said angrily.

"I don't blame you. He's family, I get that. I went through hell to find mine. I know exactly how you feel" Rick said. "He can't get far with that injury. We could help you check a few blocks around but only if we keep a level head"

"I could do that" Daryl said after a moment of silence.

 **XXXXXXX**

"Hey, Jim," Shane said. "Jim, why don't you hold up, all right? Just give me a second here, please"

"What do you want?" Jim asked, putting the shovel down for once.

"We're all just a little concerned, that's all" Shane said.

"Dale says you've been out here for hours," Morales said.

"So?" Jim asked, confused.

"So why are you digging? Are you heading to China, Jim?" Shane joked.

"What does it matter? I'm not hurting anyone" Jim said as he went back to digging.

"Yeah, except maybe yourself. It's 100 degrees today. You can't keep this up" Dale spoke up.

"Jim, they're not going to say it so I will" Lori spoke. "You're scaring people… You're scaring my son and Carol's daughter"

"They got nothing to be scared of," Jim said. "I mean, what the hell people. I'm out here all by myself. Why don't you all just go and leave me the hell alone?"

"We think that you need to take a break, okay?" Shane said. "Why don't you go and get yourself in the shade. Some food maybe. I'll tell you what- Maybe in a little bit I'll come out here. I'll help you myself. Jim, just tell me what it's about. Just give me that shovel.

"Or what?" Jim asked, digging the shovel into the dirt so it's standing up.

"There is no 'Or what' I'm asking you. I'm coming to you and I'm asking you, Please. I don't want to have to take it from you" Shane pleaded

"And if I don't, then what?" Jim asked. "Then you're gonna beat my face in like Ed Peletier, aren't you? Y'all has seen his face, Huh? What's left of it. See, now that's what happens when someone crosses you"

"That was different, Jim," Shane said.

"You weren't there. Ed was out of control. He was hurting his wife" Amy said.

"That is their marriage. That is not his" Jim said. "He is not Judge and Jury. Who voted you king boss, huh?"

"I'm not here to argue with you, all right? Just give me the shovel, okay?" Shane said, reaching for the shovel.

"No no no," Jim said.

"Just give me the- Jim!" Shane said, dodging a swipe of the shovel and tackling Jim to the ground. "Okay, Shh Shh"

"You got no right!"

"Jim. Jim, nobody's gonna hurt you, You hear me? Jim, nobody is going to hurt you, okay?" Shane said, holding Jim on the ground.

"That's a lie. That's the biggest lie there is" Jim said as he got handcuffed. "I told that to my wife and two boys. I said it 100 times. It didn't matter. They came out of nowhere. There were dozens of 'em. Just pulled 'em right out of my hands. You know the only reason I got away was 'cause the dead were too busy eating my family"

 **XXXXXXX**

Naruto, Glenn, Daryl, Rick, and T-Dog split up into groups to search the surrounding blocks for Merle. Glenn and Daryl were in one group and Naruto, Rick, and T-Dog were the other. While Glenn and Daryl were walking, they ran into a person.

"Who are you?!" Daryl asked, aiming his crossbow at the person.

"Ayudame!" the boy shouted and Two people came running immediately. They kicked and hit Daryl with their feet and weapons when a car pulled up and they dragged Glenn into it. Once the car drove off, Rick, Naruto, and T-Dog all arrived to see Daryl holding his crossbow at the boy.

"Where the hell did your friends take him?!" Daryl shouted. Rick and Naruto held Daryl back while T-Dog held the boy against the wall.

"They took Glenn! That little bastard and his little bastard homie friends! I'm gonna stomp your ass!" Naruto's eyes bled red and his pupils morphed into slits like when he beat up Merle, but this time, everyone saw it as Naruto stared at the boy dead in the eyes.

 **XXXXXXX**

Jim was tied up against a tree and Dale and Shane walked up to him with a bucket full of water and a cup inside of it.

"Jim, take some water?" Shane asked him and Jim looked at him.

"All right" Jim nodded and Shane nodded, filling the cup with water from the bucket and putting it up to his mouth and slowly poured it into his mouth so he could drink it.

"Pour some on my head?" Jim asked, hoping to cool himself off.

"Yeah" Shane nodded and filled the cup up again and poured it on top of his head. "Cooling you down, huh?" Shane asked.

"Yeah. How long are you gonna keep me like this?" Jim asked after a pause.

"Well, yeah. Until I don't think you're a danger to yourself or others" Shane said. Jim stayed silent.

"Sorry if I scared your boy and your little girl," Jim said after a moment to Lori and Carol.

"You had Sunstroke. Nobody's blaming you" Lori said.

"You're not scared now, are you?" Jim asked the kids.

"No sir," Sophia said.

"Your Mama's right. Sun just cooked my head is all" Jim said and Dale finally spoke.

"Jim, do you know why you were digging?" Dale asked. "Can you say?"

"I had a reason. Don't remember" Jim said. "Something I dreamt last night… Your dad was in it. You were too. You were worried about him. Can't remember the rest. You worried about your dad?"

"They're not back yet," Carl said and Lori rubbed his shoulder.

"We don't need to talk about that" Lori said.

"Your dad's a police officer, son. He helps people. Probably just came across some folks needing help, that's all. That man, he's tough as nails. I don't know him well, but… I could see it in him. Am I right?" Jim said, looking up at Shane for the last part.

"Oh yeah," Shane muttered, looking away.

"There ain't nothing stopping him from getting back here to you and your mom, I promise you that," Jim said and Shane picked up the bucket.

"All right," Shane said. "Who wants to help me clean some fish, huh?" Carl and Sophia ran after him and Carol followed them while Lori went over to Jim.

"You keep your boy close, you hear? You don't ever let him out of your sight" Jim said and Lori nodded before walking away.

 **XXXXXXX**

"Those men you were with, we need to know where they went," Rick said, talking to the boy they found.

"I ain't telling you nothing" the boy said.

"Jesus, Man. what the hell happened back there?" T-Dog asked Daryl.

"I told you, this little turn and his douchebag friends came out of nowhere and jumped me," Daryl said.

"You're the one who jumped me, puto, Screaming about trying to find his brother like it's my damn fault," The boy said.

"They took Glenn. could have taken Merle too" Daryl spoke and the boy chuckled.

"Merle? What kind of hick name is that? I wouldn't name my dog Merle" The boy said and Daryl looked through Glenn's bag before pulling out the wrapped hand and tossing the hand at him.

"That's what happened to the last guy that pissed me off" The boy screamed and backed into a wall. "I'll start with the feet this time," Daryl said but got pulled off him by Rick.

"The men you were with took our friend. All we wanna do is talk to them, see if we can work something out" Finally the boy relented and took them to his base.

"One wrong move you get an arrow in the ass" Daryl said, talking to the boy.

"G's gonna take that arrow out of my ass," The boy said. "And shove it up yours, just so you know"

"G?" Naruto asked and the boy nodded.

"Guillermo. He's the man here"

"All right then. Let's go see Guillermo" Rick said as Rick, Naruto, and Daryl walked behind the boy, guns out. Suddenly the doors opened and a man stepped out.

"You okay, little man?" The man asked and the boy shook his head.

"They're gonna cut off my feet, Carnal," the boy said and the man tilted his head to look at Rick.

"Cops do that?" The man asked and the boy shook his head.

"Not him. This redneck puto here. He cut off some dudes hand, man. He showed it to me"

"Hey, That's that Vato right there, homes" two people stepped out of the darkness, aiming a revolver at them.

"Chill, Ese, Chill. Chill" The man said. "This true? he wants Miguelito's feet? That's pretty sick, man"

"We were hoping for a more calm discussion" Rick said.

"That hillbilly jumps Felipe's little cousin, beats him, threatens to cut off his feet, Felipe gets an arrow in the ass and you want a calm discussion?" The man said. "You fascinate me"

"Heat of the moment. Mistakes were made on both sides" Naruto finally spoke up.

"Who is that dude to you anyways? You don't look related" The man said.

"He's one of our group, more or less," Rick said. "I'm sure you have a few like him"

"You got my brother in there?" Daryl asked.

"Sorry, we're fresh out of white boys," The man said. "But I got asian. You interested?"

"We have one of yours, you have one of mine. Sounds like an even trade" Rick said.

"Doesn't sound even to me" the man spoke.

"G, come on man" Miguelito spoke.

"My people got attacked. Where's the compensation for their pain and suffering?" G said.

"How about a bag of guns?" Naruto spoke, surprising everyone since they didn't have the bag of guns on them.

"Hmm… How many guns?" G spoke and Naruto answered almost immediately.

"Fifteen guns, Five pistols, Three Semi-Auto's, three assault rifles and four shotguns," Naruto said and the man nodded.

"Throw in Miguel, unharmed, and it's a deal," G said and Naruto nodded before Rick's group walked back. Once they got back, Daryl and Rick turned on him, angrily.

"You just screwed us! We don't have the bag of guns!" Daryl whisper-yelled.

"That's why we're not giving them the bag of guns," Naruto said as he grabbed a plastic bag that was sitting on the ground and it turned into a duffle bag.

"Gather Fifteen sticks in total and I'm going to make them look like guns," Naruto said and everyone's eyes widened. They gathered the sticks in less than thirty seconds and he turned them into the guns he told G he had in the bag.

"This is a solid illusion but it'll wear off in a day so we have to try and find Merle and get back to camp before It wears off. If we can't find Merle, we have no choice but to leave him" Naruto said and everyone nodded and they walked back to the group and threw the 'guns' at their feet.

"A deal's a deal. You get the guns and Miguel and we get Glenn, alright?" Naruto said and G nodded before whistling. A minute later Glenn came out with ducktape around his mouth and his arms tied behind his back.

"A deal is a deal… now get out of here before I change my mind" G said and they nodded after untying Glenn and getting the duct tape off his mouth.

When they reached where the Van was, it was gone.

"Where the hell's our van?!" Naruto said and Rickly responded.

"Merle," Rick said and they ran back to camp as fast as possible, knowing he would try and go for revenge.

 **XXXXXXX**

When the finally got back to camp, there were zombies everywhere but some people were already bitten.

"We were too late…" Naruto said as Rick and Daryl started shooting every zombie possible until they were all dead but it was too late, members of their camp had been bitten and had to be shot in the head. Naruto looked over at Rick to see him hugging his wife and son. Naruto dropped to the ground and hugged his knees to his chest.

Naruto may be powerful but people forget, he's a little boy too.

 **This is probably my shortest chapter yet, and will probably be my shortest chapter ever. So Sorry but I'm exhausted from writing so late at night so I hope you enjoyed!  
I'm gonna get some sleep.  
Goodnight!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Bam, another chapter!  
Hope you enjoy this one!  
See ya at the end!**

"Morgan, I don't know if you're out there. I don't know if you can hear me. Maybe you're listening right now. I hope so" Rick said into his walkie-talkie. "I found others- My family if you can believe it. My wife and son, They're alive. I wanted you to know that. There's something else you need to know, Atlanta Isn't what we thought. It's not what they promised. The city is- Do not enter the city. It belongs to the dead now"

"We're camped a few miles northwest, up by a big abandoned rock quarry. You can see it on a map. I hope you come find us but be careful. Last night walkers came out of the woods. We lost people. Watch yourself, Morgan. Take care of your boy. I'll try you again tomorrow at dawn"

 **XXXXXXX**

"Andrea," Lori said, kneeling down next to her and Amy's corpse. "I'm so sorry. She's gone. You gotta let us take her… we all cared about her and I promise we'll be as gentle as we can" Andrea didn't respond, just kept staring at Amy's corpse and Lori got up and patted her shoulder and walked off.

Daryl slammed his pickaxe into a zombies head to make sure it was dead and T-Dog and Glenn lifted the corpse and threw it into a bonfire of corpses.

"She still won't move?" Rick asked, him and Naruto walking up to Shane and Dale. Dale just shook his head and Lori sat down next to them.

"She won't even talk to us" Lori started. "She's been there all night. What do we do? Can't just leave Amy like that"

"We need to deal with it," Shane said "Same as the others"

"I'll tell her how it is," Naruto said, walking over to Andrea, who was still looking at Amy's corpse.

"Andrea" Naruto spoke but got a gun pulled on him.

"I know how the safety works," Andrea said "You can thank Rick for that"

"All right. Okay" Naruto said, backing up. "I'm sorry… I'm sorry"

"Y'all can't be serious," Daryl said. "Let that girl hamstring us. The dead girl's a time bomb just waiting to explode!"

"What do you suggest?" Rick asked Daryl who walked up to him.

"Take the shot. Clean, in the brain from here. Hell, I can hit a turkey between the eyes from this distance" Daryl said.

"No. for god's sakes, let her be," Lori said, sitting down on a log. Daryl just scoffed and walked away.

"Wake up, Jimbo. We got some work to do" Daryl said, passing Jim and grabbing a body and dragging it to the fire.

"What are you guys doing?" Glenn said. "This is for geeks. Our people go over there!" Glenn said, pointing at another pile of bodies.

"What's the difference? They're all infected" Daryl said and Glenn walked up to the two of them.

"Our people go in that row over there," Glenn said. "We don't burn them! We bury them. Understand? Our people go in that row over there"

"You reap what you sow," Daryl said.

"You know what? Shut up, man" Morales said.

"Y'all left my brother for dead" Daryl shouted. "You had this coming" Jacqui walked over to a corpse and was about to pick it up when she saw fresh blood on Jim's shirt.

"Are you bleeding?" Jacqui asked Jim who shook his head.

"I just got some on me from the bodies," Jim said, shaking his head as he leaned down to help her lift the body.

"That blood is fresh. Were you bit?" Jacqui asked.

"No. I got scratched during the attack" Jim said, trying to pick up the corpse.

"You got bit," Jacqui said, standing up from out of the crouching position.

"I'm fine," Jim said.

"Then show me!" Jacqui said angrily.

"Don't tell, please" Jim whispered to her.

"A walker got him," Jacqui said. "A walker bit Jim!"

"I'm okay, I'm okay," Jim said and Daryl pointed at Jim.

"Show it to us," Daryl said and Jim turned around and picked up a shovel.

"Easy Jim," Shane said and Daryl quickly told T-Dog to grab him. T-Dog quickly ran from behind Jim and grabbed him so he couldn't move a dropped the shovel.

"I'm okay. I'm okay" Jim said as Daryl lifted his shirt, revealing a bite mark and he quickly dropped it and backed away while Jim muttered 'I'm okay' over and over. They quickly put him next to the RV while they decided what to do with him.

"I say we put a pickaxe in his head and the dead girl's and be done with it," Daryl said, making Shane look at him.

"Is that what you'd want if it were you?" Shane asked Daryl who nodded.

"Yeah, and I'd thank you while you did it" Daryl spoke.

"I hate to say it- I thought I never would- but maybe Daryl's right," Dale said, looking down at the ground.

"Jim's not a monster, Dale, or some rabid dog," Rick said angrily.

"I'm not suggesting-" Dale was cut off from talking by Rick.

"He's sick. A sick man. We start down that road, where do we draw the line?" Rick spoke.

"The line's pretty clear. Zero tolerance for walkers" Daryl said "Or them to be"

"What if we can get him help?" Naruto spoke up, walking in their direction. "I heard the C.D.C. was working on a cure"

"I heard that too. Heard a lot of things before the world went to hell" Shane said, sitting down.

"What if the C.D.C. is still up and running?" Rick asked, making Shane shake his head.

"Man, that is a stretch right there," Shane told Rick.

"Why? If there's any government left, any structure at all, they'd protect the C.D.C. at all costs wouldn't they?" Rick said. "I think it's our best shot. Shelter, protection-"

"Okay, Rick, you want those things, all right? I do too, okay? Now if they exist, they're at the army base" Shane said, cutting Rick off from finishing. "Fort Benning"

"That's 100 miles in the opposite direction," Lori said.

"That's right, but it's away from the hot zone. Now listen to me. If that place is operational, It'll be heavily armed. We'd be safe there" Shane tried to convince Rick to step away from the plan of going to the C.D.C.

"The military was on the front lines of this thing. They got overrun. We've all seen that. The C.D.C. is our best choice and Jim's only chance" Rick said and Daryl looked back at Jim before nodding to himself.

"You go looking for aspirin, someone needs to have the balls to take care of this damn problem!" Before Daryl could swing his pickaxe, Rick had his gun pointed at his head.

"Hey hey hey!" Rick said. "We don't kill the living"

"That's funny coming from a man who just put a gun to my head," Daryl said.

"We may disagree on some things, not on this. You put it down" Shane said. "Go on" Daryl threw the pickaxe at the ground and when everyone walked away, Rick walked over to Jim and pulled him to his feet.

"Where are you taking me?" Jim asked Rick who was leading him somewhere.

"Somewhere safe," Rick said. Dale walked over to Amy's corpse that Andrea was still staring at.

"I came to pay my respects," Dale said, looking down at Amy. "Did I ever mention how I lost my wife?"

"Cancer, wasn't it?" Andrea asked, still looking at Amy's corpse.

"Yeah," Dale said, nodding. "I dragged her to every doctor, every test. And after all the surgeries and all the chemos, she was ready. She accepted it, you know? But I never could and I spent the last few years so angry. I felt so cheated. Since she passed, you girls were the first people… that I cared anything for"

Amy looked at Dale and smiled before reaching in her pocket and pulled out a wrapped gift.

"This is her birthday?" Dale asked and Andrea nodded.

"Her birthday was always like- like a week-long affair. But I somehow always missed it. I was away at college or too busy for kid's parties. She'd call all excited. I always said that I'd make it home and I really always meant to, but I never made it past that phone call" Andrea spoke, looking over her shoulder at Dale with tears in her eyes.

"I know things are hard enough for you without adding guilt into the mix, huh?" Dale spoke, shaking his head slightly. Andrea unwrapped the gift in her palm and revealed it to be the mermaid necklace she had taken from the store. Andrea undid it and put it around her neck while Dale got up and left.

Over at the pile of bodies that Daryl was using the pickaxe on, Carol walked up to him and looked at her husband's body.

"I'll do it. He's my husband" Carol said, crying. Daryl looked at her for a second before handing her the pickaxe so she could destroy the brain of her husband. She swung once and kept swinging a few times afterward, crying the whole time.

Over at Amy's corpse, Andrea heard breathing coming from Amy's body so she leaned her head down next to her mouth to see if she could feel her breath and she did. Amy started to shift slightly while Andrea placed her hand on Amy's cheek. Amy opened her eyes to reveal very red and cloudy eyes and Amy looked over at Andrea.

"Amy" Andrea whispered "Amy, I'm sorry" Amy reached her hand up and touched her face.

"I'm sorry for not ever being there. I always thought there'd be more time" Amy grabbed Andrea's hair and lifted herself up so she could try to bite Andrea. Andrea held Amy back from biting her.

Over with Shane, Rick, and Naruto, they saw that Amy had come back as a zombie and reached for their guns while slowly walking over to them.

"I'm here now, Amy. I'm here" Andrea placed her forehead to Amy's and muttered "I love you" while putting her pistol to Amy's head and firing. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked over at Andrea.

On top of the hill, Shane, Naruto, and Rick were digging graves for their own so they could bury them.

"Say it," Rick and Naruto said at the same time, surprising the other.

"Okay. I'm thinking if you two would have stayed here, If you two would have looked after your own- Instead you went off. You two took half our manpower with you. I'm thinking maybe our losses wouldn't have been so bad" Naruto and Rick stayed silent until they heard a truck approaching.

It was Dale's pick-up truck carrying a bunch of bodies and it stopped at the top of the hill.

"I think it's a mistake not burning these bodies. It's what we said we'd do, right?" Daryl asked., "Burn 'em all, wasn't that the idea?" Everyone from camp walked up the hill.

"At first," Shane spoke, still digging.

"The Chinaman gets all emotional, says it's not the thing to do, we just follow him along?" Daryl spoke. "These people need to know who the hell's in charge here, what the rules are"

"There are no rules," Rick told Daryl and Lori walked forwards.

"Well, that's a problem," Lori said. "We haven't had one minute to hold onto anything of our old selves. We need time to mourn and we need to bury our dead. It's what people do"

 **XXXXXXX**

In the RV, Jim was on the bed, shirtless and a bandage around his bite.

"Oh no. No no no no. No, not this, please" Jim said, as he started to hallucinate zombies in front of him. "No no no"

"Oh, No no no," Jim said, panting.

 **XXXXXXX**

Back at the graveyard, everyone was buried except Amy, who they were burying last. Andrea grabbed Amy's covered corpse and dragged it into the hole, while Dale tried to help every so often.

Once they finished, they all began to walk back to camp.

"Burying other people is bad enough, but the thought of one of us-" Rick started but was cut off by Lori.

"Shh," Lori said and nodded at Carl.

"Are we safe now, Dad?" Carl asked. "Now that we're together?"

"I won't leave again," Rick said. "I promise you that. Not for anything. Now give me a chance to discuss some things with your mom, okay? Why don't you go talk to Naruto, Huh?" Rick said and Carl nodded before running off to go find Naruto.

"Shane blames me for not being here. Do you?" Rick asked and Lori opened her mouth to respond before closing it.

"We have fewer people," Lori said "That makes us weaker. You want me to say I think you were right? I understand that… all I can say is that neither of you is entirely wrong. It's the best I can do right now" Rick nodded.

"What about the C.D.C.?" Rick said. "We're at the ragged edge here. We need relief and we have a sick man who needs help. I don't know why people can't see that"

"Well, look at their faces. Look at mine. We're all terrified" Lori spoke. "If one of us suggested, based on a hunch, that we head towards the city, you'd have no part of it. Tell me something with certainty"

"I love you," Rick said after a minute of silence. "That's all I got"

"I love you too," Lori said and Rick hugged her. Once they got back to camp, they saw Naruto giving Carl a piggy-back ride and running all over the place, making the husband and wife smile before they walked into the RV to check on Jim.

When they got in the RV, they saw Carol taking care of him.

"His fever is worse," Carol said, looking back at the two.

"You need anything?" Lori asked Jim, who looked up at her when she started talking.

"Uh… water. Could use more water" Jim said and Lori nodded.

"I'll go get some" Lori said as she walked out of the RV. "Carol, can you help me?" Lori asked and Carol nodded before getting up and following Lori out of the RV.

"You save a grave for me?" Jim asked and Rick shook his head.

"Nobody wants that" Rick spoke and Jim shook his head.

"It's not about what you want. That, Uh- That sound you hear, That's God laughing while you make plans" Jim said, before looking down at his blanket.

"What I want, Jim, if- If God allows, is to get you some help" Rick said and when Jim started coughing, Rick handed him the puke bucket next to him.

"Watch the mangroves," Jim said. "Their roots will gouge the whole boat. You know that, right? Amy is there swimming. You'll watch the boat, right? You said you would" Rick nodded.

"I'll watch the boat," Rick said. "Don't worry"

Shane walked up to a sitting Lori and knelt down in front of her.

"I need you to help talk some sense into Rick," Shane said and Lori rolled her eyes before standing up and moving away from the entrance. "Look, this C.D.C. thing, Lori, it's a mistake" Lori opened her mouth but closed it a second later.

"So you're backing him?" Shane asked and Lori nodded.

"What else would I do? He's my husband" Lori said, looking down at the ground before back up at Shane.

"Look, it may be time for you to play the dutiful wife, but you can't tell me that fixing your marriage is worth putting people's lives at risk," Shane said, looking her in the eyes.

"I think folks around here can make up their own minds without bringing my marriage into it" Lori spoke. "It's a habit you need to break"

"I guess I'll just add it to the list of habits that I'm breaking," Shane said. "Whether I like it or not" Suddenly Rick walked out of the RV.

"What Habits?" Rick asked.

"Just talking about my need for a plan, man," Shane said. "So what is it? Are we leaving or not? Maybe y'all just want to stay here. We could hang some more tin cans"

"We can't stay here. we both know that" Rick said as Dale walked up.

"I was just telling Shane I think we should trust your gut," Lori said and Shane looked down before back at Rick.

"Let's go do our sweep" Rick nodded and they went to grab their guns and collect Naruto before walking into the woods.

"Tell you what, man, these people, man, they're not convinced. You know? You head to the C.D.C., you might be on your own. You gotta really consider whether you want to put Lori and Carl in that kind of spot" Shane said.

"I gotta do what's best for my family" Rick spoke.

"Best for your family? What's that? Exposing them to all kinds of risks?" Shane asked.

"As opposed to what? Crossing 100 miles of hostile territory? If we're looking for a lifeline, I saw swim towards the closest ship, not further out to sea. Why can't you back me up?" Rick asked Shane.

"Look, I want to. It's just… I don't see it" Shane said and looked back to Naruto who had been silent this whole time.

"If it was your family, you'd feel differently," Rick said, not noticing that Shane stopped walking until he didn't hear the leaves crunching behind him.

"What did you say to me?" Shane asked, walking up to Rick. "I kept 'em safe, man. I looked after them like they were my own. That's what I did"

"I didn't mean it that way," Rick spoke, looking at Shane.

"Well, how'd you mean it? Go on, man. How'd you mean it?" Shane asked.

"You're misinterpreting me, man. You're just hearing it wrong" Rick said "Look, you know- you know I can never repay that debt, okay?" suddenly they all heard a branch snap and the three of them raised their guns so they split up to search for the origin of the noise. When Shane searched his area and didn't find anything, he raised his gun to Rick who didn't notice a thing. Neither did Naruto.

Dale walked up to Shane and saw his gun raised in Rick's direction and raised an eyebrow.

"Jesus," Dale said and Shane chuckled.

"I know. Gonna start having to wear reflective vests out here" Shane said, looking over at Dale who still had an eyebrow raised. "Come on you two," Shane said to Naruto and Rick who nodded and walked back over. When they got back to camp, Shane spoke up to the whole camp who was sitting around the campfire.

"I've been, uh- I've been thinking about Rick's plan. Now look, there are no- there are no guarantees either way. I'll be the first one to admit that. I've known this man a long time. I trust his instincts" Shane said. "I say the most important thing here is we need to stay together… so those of you that agree, we leave first thing in the morning. Okay?"

 **XXXXXXX**

"We're moving out, leaving the quarry. If you heard me yesterday, you may be coming here. If you are, we'll be gone by the time you arrive. I'm leaving a note and map behind for you taped to a red car, so you can follow our trail. We're heading to the C.D.C. if there's anything left, it's got to be there, don't you think?" Rick said into the walkie-talkie. "Morgan… I hope you were right about that place. I need you to be"

 **XXXXXXX**

"Everybody listen up. Those of you with C.B.s, we're gonna be on channel 40. Let's keep the chatter down, okay? Now you got a problem, don't have a C.B., can't get a signal or anything at all, you're gonna hit your horn one time. That'll stop the caravan" Shane said. "Any questions?"

"We're, Uh… We are- We're not going" Morales said, looking around to see everyone's reactions.

"We have family in Birmingham. We want to be with our people" Morales's wife said.

"You go on your own, you won't have anyone to watch your back," Shane said.

"We'll take the chance. I got to do what's best for my family" Morales said and Rick looked at them.

"You sure?" Rick asked them and Morales nodded.

"We talked about it. We're sure" Morales said and Rick nodded before reaching into the bag of guns and grabbing a pistol.

"All right," Rick said, handing him the gun.

"The box is half full," Shane said, handing him the ammo box.

"Thank you all… everything" Morales's wife said as Lori hugged her and Morales and Shane shook hands. Naruto ran over to Morales and hugged him. "Good luck, Morales" Naruto said and Morales smiled before patting his back.

"Thank you for returning me to my family, Naruto. You too, Rick" Morales said, shaking hands with Rick when Naruto stopped hugging him and they all got in their vehicles and drove away from their camp. Naruto got in the back of Rick's vehicle with Lori and Carl and they followed the caravan.

On the Red car, was a note that read:

 **Morgan.**

 **Going to C.D.C.  
This area is  
NOT SAFE**

 **Rick & Naruto**

They all drove in silence for a while before the RV broke down and they had to stop.

"I told you we'd never get far on that hose," Dale said, looking at the smoking engine. "I said I needed the one from the cube van"

"Can you jury-rig it?" Rick asked and Dale shook his head.

"That's all it's been so far. It's more duct tape than a hose. And I'm out of duct tape" Dale said. Shane was looking through a set of binoculars and he saw something up ahead.

"I see something up ahead. A gas station if we're lucky" Shane said as Jacqui ran out of the RV.

"Y'all, Jim- It's bad. I don't think he can take any more" Jacqui said and she ran back into the RV.

"Hey, Rick. Want to hold down the fort? I'll drive up ahead, see what I can bring back" Rick nodded and T-Dog looked at Shane.

"I'll go with you, back you up," T-Dog said as Rick walked into the RV to talk with Jim.

"We're going to be on the road again soon," Rick said.

"Oh no, Christ. My bones- My bones are like glass" Jim said. "Every little bump- God, this ride is killing me. Leave me here. I'm done. Just leave me… I want to be with my family"

"They're all dead. I don't think you know what your asking" Rick said. "The Fever- You've been delirious more often than not"

"I know. Don't you think I know?" Jim said. "I'm clear now. In five minutes I may not be… Rick, I know what I'm asking. I want this… leave me here, Now that's on me. Okay? My decision, not your failure" Rick nodded and walked outside the RV to hear everyone else's input on hi decision.

"It's what he says he wants" Rick spoke.

"And he's lucid?" Carol asked.

"He seems to be," Rick said. "I would say yes"

"Back in the camp when I said Daryl might be right you shut me down, you misunderstood. I would never go along with callously killing a man" Dale spoke. "I was just going to suggest that we ask Jim what he wants… and I think we have an answer"

"We just leave him here?" Shane asked, looking at Rick. "We take off? Man, I'm not sure I could live with that"

"It's not your call. Either one of you" Lori said and Rick and Shane nodded before walking inside and seeing Naruto sitting next to Jim, talking with him.

"You sure you want this, Jim?" Naruto asked, one last time.

"Yeah, I'm sure Naruto," Jim said, forcing a smile for Naruto even though he was in tremendous pain.

"You ready, Jim?" Rick asked and Jim nodded before he got lifted from the bed and walked over to a tree on the edge of the forest next to them.

"Hey, another damn tree" Jim said, looking up at the leaves of the tree.

"Hey, Jim- I mean, you know it doesn't need to be this" Shane said, leaned down to Jim's level so he could see him.

"No. It's good. The breeze feels nice" Jim said, closing his eyes to feel the breeze.

"All right," Shane said, backing away and Jacqui walked up and knelt down to his height.

"Just close your eyes, sweetie. Don't fight" Jacqui said and when he closed his eyes, she kissed him on the cheek. Rick walked up when Jacqui walked away.

"Jim, do you want this?" Rick said, holding a gun in the palm of his hand.

"No," Jim said. "You'll need it… I'm okay" Rick walked away and Dale walked up to him.

"Thanks for, uh, for fighting for us," Dale said.

"Okay" Jim spoke and everyone walked away, mourning in some way.

 **XXXXXXX**

 **Wildfire MSB3417 Active**

 **Begin Transmission**

"Jenner here," Jenner said in an unknown room. "It's day 194 since Wildfire was declared and 63 days since the disease abruptly went global. There's no clinical progress to report"

"Item- I finally got the scrubbers down in the east sector shut down to save power. Wish I could have done it a month ago but it took me that long to figure it out. Too bad I never studied engineering, could have saved a lot of amps" Jenner said.

"Item- I'm still not sleeping well. Can't seem to keep regular hours. Living underground doesn't help, not knowing if it's day or night. I'm just feeling very off-kilter these days"

 **Wildfire MSB3417 Active**

 **End Transmission**

 **XXXXXXX**

Jenner, in a hazmat suit, walked through a door, into a lab full of different chemicals and machines.

Jenner turned on two monitors and typed something in on a keyboard before opening a small door and pulling out a tray. On the tray was a piece of meat in an air-tight bag, which he cut open and when it was open, he pulled something out before placing it in a test-tube before pouring a yellowish liquid in it with a pipette before putting it in a machine that spun it around really fast. While he was waiting for it to finish, he took a nap in his hazmat suit but when he heard the beeping of the machine, he woke up.

He placed something on a microscope slide before putting it underneath a microscope. He looked inside it and went to grab something but accidentally knocked over the yellow liquid into his petri dish full of the flesh and it started bubbling and fizzing before an Alarm sounded.

Dr. Jenner tried to wipe it away but it started eating away at his hazmat suit.

" **Alert Status. Air qualifiers indicate corrosive fumes, all personnel must clear the room. the corrosive element is deemed poisonous if inhaled"** Dr. Jenner quickly ran out of the room after getting under a shower and the room was sealed behind him. The room he ran into shot water out of the walls and he took off his hazmat suit.

" **All personnel cleared. Full decontamination in effect"** The robotic voice said and Dr. Jenner quickly looked back at the room.

"No!" Dr. Jenner yelled as the room exploded into flames.

 **XXXXXXX**

Dr. Jenner started another transmission and was seen drinking a glass of wine.

"The TS19 samples are gone. The tragedy of their loss cannot be overstated. They were our freshest samples by far" Dr. Jenner said, finishing his glass of wine.

"None of the other samples we gathered even came close. Those are necrotic, usless dead flesh. I don't even know why I'm talking to you" Dr. Jenner spoke. "I bet there isn't a single son of a bitch out there still listening, is there? Is there? Fine. Saves me the embarrassment. I think tomorrow I'm gonna blow my brains out. I haven't decided… But tonight, I'm getting drunk"

 **XXXXXXX**

Everyone finally made it to the C.D.C. and they got out of their vehicles and walked towards the main entrance, shocked about the large number of corpses everywhere.

"All right, everybody. Keep moving. Go on" Shane whispered as they kept their guns close to them, ready to fire. When they made it to the front entrance, Jenner heard a beeping come from his computer.

"There's nobody here," T-Dog said and before he could say any more, Rick spoke up.

"Then why are these shutteres down?" Rick asked.

"Walkers!" Shane said, and they looked behind them to see a walker which Daryl shot with an arrow. While they were all arguing, Naruto looked up at the camera and when everyone was about to leave, Naruto saw it move.

"The Camera- It moved!" Naruto said and Dale shook his head.

"You imagined it," Dale said and Naruto shook his head at them.

"It moved," Naruto said, walking closer to the shutters.

"It's an automated device. It has gears, okay? They're just winding down. Now come on, Naruto" Shane said, grabbing Naruto's arm but Naruto stayed put.

"No, just go away," Dr. Jenner said from inside the building.

"I Know you're in there. I know you can hear me" Naruto spoke, banging on the metal shutters. "Please, we're desperate!" Naruto yelled at the camera. "Please help us. We have women, children, no food, hardly any gas left! We have no where else to go! If you don't let us in, you're killing us!" Naruto got dragged away by Shane and Rick while Naruto still pleaded for Dr. Jenner to help them.

Suddenly the shutters opened and a bright light came from the inside. Dr. Jenner opened the doors for them.

 **DONE  
FINALLY DONE. My fingers feel numb from typing so much!  
How'd you like it?  
Tell me in a review!  
Peace.**


	6. REBOOT

**Hello Everyone**

 **I know i basically abandoned this story and its fans, but I've been thinking for a while now about recreating it under an entirely new idea. The New story will be going up when I actually get around to writing it which i hope will be soon!**

 **I am so sorry again for abandoning it and I request that you follow my profile so you get notified when i create the new story!**

 **I suppose i can update this story as well :P**

 **See you all soon!**

 **Peace!**


	7. New Story!

**Hello Everyone!**

 **It's me! So. the new story is up (and if it's not, give it a few minutes- around 30)  
So for those that stuck around and decided to give this new story a shot, thank you!**

 **Hope you all enjoy and I'll see you over there!**

 **Peace!**


End file.
